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Scottsville council debates future of Emergency Preparedness Committee and CERT, pauses final action
Summary
Council members and a local official argued over whether to dissolve the town's Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC) and community CERT; speakers urged a short delay to gather volunteers and review new information before ending the group.
A local official who helped form the Emergency Preparedness Committee urged the council not to abolish the EPC or the town's CERT volunteer group, saying the committee filled gaps in the town's emergency operations plan and led grant-funded work on e911 signage and communications. "Voting to abolish EPC and CERT implies that you either have the answers and are comfortable with them or that you don't care about them," the local official said during public comment.
Council members exchanged views for more than an hour. Several members argued the committee lacks formal sponsorship, insurance and training and that the town lacks staff and resources to run CERT locally. One councilor said the town must be realistic about volunteer capacity: "We just don't have the staff, the experience, the expertise, or a lot of things...we just can't manage it," a council member said. Others urged a three-month pause to gather new volunteers and review materials the committee produced, with at least one proposal to revisit the issue after additional outreach.
The debate covered technical items the committee worked on: an updated EOP that was drafted by the police chief's team but not returned to the committee for formal review; a completed grant program that supplied e911 signs in fall 2024; and tests of a communications backup for internet outages. Several speakers emphasized the county's role and noted the county EOP does not explicitly incorporate Scottsville inputs. Council members did not immediately adopt a long-term dissolution; instead, multiple members asked for time to process the newly presented information and suggested delaying final action to allow the committee or staff to reengage with potential volunteers.
Next steps: councilors asked staff to track volunteers and bring back additional information; a procedural motion on related administrative support and volunteer policy was taken separately and passed during the meeting.
