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New Black Mountain CERT describes volunteer deployments, radio resilience on Allen Mountain
Summary
Volunteer Community Emergency Response Team leaders told council about recent activations, training turnout and a project to rehabilitate the Allen Mountain repeater for 72-hour battery-backed radio communications for first responders and trained volunteers.
David Bilstrom, a volunteer firefighter and CERT liaison, briefed the council on the Black Mountain Community Emergency Response Team(CERT), describing the group's mission to organize trained volunteers for the first 72 hours after emergencies and to support planned public events.
"CERT provides a structure and a reporting, accountability for these citizen volunteers so that we can embrace them and not turn them away," Bilstrom said, describing why an organized volunteer cadre matters in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
Bilstrom chronicled recent deployments and training: CERT volunteers staffed traffic control after infrastructure failure during a storm, supported Halloween and Christmas parade public-safety details, and contributed to reunification and event safety. He said the group now has 27 active volunteers and a leadership team and raised about $27,000 in the first nine months, mostly from in-kind donations and a cash grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.
A major technical accomplishment Bilstrom described was rehabilitation of a hilltop repeater on Allen Mountain to provide 72 hours of off-grid radio capability. The retrofitted repeater uses battery power and was designed to recharge quickly when solar is available. Bilstrom said CERT trained members to operate repeaters and added two repeaters for citizen use so volunteers can communicate directly with police and fire when cellular or county trunking systems fail.
Bilstrom also flagged gaps: the town currently lacks a warming shelter that meets county standards and the CERT program needs ongoing funding to sustain training and equipment. He asked council to note the teamand the fire departmentinterest in Firewise and community resilience hub concepts, and to consider grant opportunities.
Council members praised the volunteerswork and thanked Bilstrom for the report. No formal action was taken, but council agreed to continue exploring options for warming-shelter capacity and to consider CERT needs during grant and budget planning.
