December 17, 2007 Emergency Management Team Meeting Minutes
Members present:  Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director (EMD) Walter Tibbetts, Board of Health Chairman William “Bill” Elliott, Select Board Chairman Rebecca Torres, and Police Chief Thomas Harding.
Also Present: Town Administrator David C. Dann, and Administrative Secretary Leslie Bracebridge recording.
Meeting opened at 7:10 P.M.
Agenda Topics:
1. The October 22, 2007 the minutes were reviewed and accepted as written.  
2.  Connect CTY:
           a) Results of test #2 – Total contacts selected: 662. (Test 1 - 622)
Total unique deliveries: 658.  (Test 1 – 612) (Multiple contacts may share the same number.)
 		Successful deliveries: 549 (83.4.0%)  (Test 1 – 514, 84%)
                                             	Answering Machines: 285 (Test 1 - 240)
                                             	Live delivery: 264 (Test 1 – 274)
        		 Unsuccessful deliveries: 109 (16.6%) (Test 1 – 98, 16%)
			      	Bad phone numbers: 45 (Test 1 - 48)
		                   	Busy: 6 (Test 1 – 5)
			       	Fax/Modem:  13 (Test 1 - 4)
			       	No answer: 35 (Test 1 – 39)
			       	Undeliverable: 10 (Test 1 - 2)
		Total E-mails Sent: 55 (Test 1 – 17)
EMD Tibbetts reported people not receiving calls tended to be in the part of Shutesbury with Amherst mailing addresses such as the January Hills Road area.  As a result of this test he has added 16 to18 new households into the database.  Many residents have added additional numbers also.  EMD Tibbetts is working with individuals on some unique situations.  He is cross-referencing his work with E911 Coordinator Michael Friedman who works directly with Verizon for 911.  Through a process of elimination, a number of addresses could be listed that are not currently listed, but should that be done without the residents’ permission? Chief Harding has access to numbers through public safety records also, but should that information be listed?  Perhaps a letter should be sent to people not in the system.  As people move away, there may also be “bad” numbers in the system.
3. Update on Lake Wyola Dam Emergency Action Plan (EAP) – 
Town Administrator Dann:  Engineer Morris Root completed the narrative with Leverett representative Richard Brazeau and EMD Tibbetts; he collected inundation maps from FRCOG.  All EAP manuals are ready for pick-up by members of the Dam Management Committee and will be reviewed at their December 19 meeting.  Morris also sent a copy to MEMA.  Director Tibbetts discovered that page 15 and page 21 were from the first version.  David will email all changes to Morris and to the Office of Dam Safety after Wednesday’s meeting.  Who should sign the document testifying that they have read the document and agree to the responsibilities assigned to them?  In addition to Shutesbury officials, the Selectmen from Leverett and Montague should sign off on having received the plans.  Copies will be sent to the Leverett and Montague Emergency Management Directors.  Leverett’s evacuation role is significant.  Montague has not provided a response as to personnel or what they would do in the event of an emergency level notification.  Engineer Root’s new description of a dam break analysis is much more consistent with what the Office of Dam Safety is seeking.  Inundation maps were reviewed.  There is only a wet weather inundation map.  Usually dry weather inundation maps (earthquake versus storm related) are included in EAP’s. Other EAP maps have “sunny day” (a commonly used term for “dry weather” inundation maps) lines on the 500 year flood inundation map.  It is anticipated that the final draft of the Lake Wyola EAP will be sent off to the Office of Dam Safety on the day after Christmas.
4.  Update on communications:
      (a) Emergency Management Radios:
A mismatch of the antennae for one of the “Portable Base” radios was identified and corrected. This now allows a portable radio to be inserted into the booster and used as a base radio. There was some damage done to the booster, but there is another unit at the DCR district 10 depot that can be used as a replacement. Gate and Dam Keeper Howard Kinder will have a portable radio and a “Portable Base” booster with magnetic mount antennae to take with him wherever he goes. This booster was modified by EMD Tibbetts to be powered by either 120 volt AC or 12 volt DC. Bill will borrow two radios to try “bouncing the signals off the repeater” from various locations. 
     (b) UHF Radios
 Police radios have been reprogrammed and are working well with the in car repeaters. Regional funding has run out for now to get the fire radios reprogrammed. Chief Tibbetts is looking at funding this from his operating budget. The radios are operational and in use but reprogramming would aid in on scene procedures. 
5.  Emergency Preparedness Guides
The first order of 250 guides has arrived.  The committee reviewed the guides and suggested that they be distributed through various town events at various locations.  More can be ordered if they run out.
6.  NIMS compliance training.
The NIMS compliance letter was sent in on time.  Many of the January timelines have already been met.  People still in need of training are in pursuit of it.  NIMS training goals for September of 2008 were reviewed.
7.  Board of Health Survey
The explanatory material and question descriptions for this year’s survey include accounting for ConnectCTY .  An invitation will be made for even broader participation in next year’s flu clinic, also to be run as an Emergency Distribution Site (EDS).

This year 90 of the 100 available injection doses were used.  74 recipients had pre-registered for the doses.  Individual instruction cards were bar coded by the individual’s circumstances.  The bar-coding allowed people to sign in at a rate of 4/minute.  Back-up nurses filled in with dispensing vaccines.  All vaccines were provided free. The lead nurse’s time was provided by the Franklin County Community Health Organization.

The flow rate of the recipients of the clinic indicates that Shutesbury could meet the Center for Disease Control (CDC) requirements using this one location.  We have developed the capacity to do dispensing and medication for the entire town in the event of an emergency.  Next year there will be more vaccine and three different types of vaccine to accommodate all people’s needs. 

Bill attended the Deerfield EDS flu clinic at the Deerfield high school cafeteria, run as a family exercise.  He hopes to incorporate useful methods used there into Shutesbury’s 2008 EDS flu clinic.

8. EDS drill and After Action Report

Two evaluations were conducted.  Whatever is done in 2008 will be consistent with CDC and DPH standards.  Guidelines are being put together for an after-action report.  An Improvement Plan (IP) will also be prepared.  

Pre-registration and bar-coding was unique to Shutesbury’s.  Through use of a web-cam there was live, direct communication between the EDS site and the EOC for the first time this year.  Consistent with CDC guidelines, there was a mental health person on staff.  Shutesbury met all CDC guidelines.

If vaccine runs out in a real situation prioritizations would need to be made.  It will be a hard call by the Board of Health Chairman.  As Incident Commander, EMD Tibbetts would not be a part of the real time management.  It is becoming mandatory that communities be able to do this.  Emergency Preparedness Planner for the Mohawk Area Public Health Coalition John Peterson will be assembling recommended procedures for Franklin County small Boards of Health using Shutesbury as an example.

9.  Setting up neighborhood groups.
The neighborhood group structure is on paper.  The last thing to do is to set the groups up and run a practice drill. It appears from compiled results of last year’s survey that there are enough volunteers for the planned structure.  Last year there was a budget to compile the data.  It would take $500 to compile this year’s data.  The Personnel Board will review this year’s request.

10.  Other Old Business: None.

11.  New Business:  
* Homeland Security has offered supplies of masks, car signs, vests, goggles and gloves to Boards of Health.  Bill will put in some orders.   
* Those with access to CTY for doing announcements should run through a practice exercise so that they would be available for back-up support as needed.

12.  The next meeting will be March 3, 2008 at 7 P.M.               
Adjourned at 8:55 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,
Leslie Bracebridge, Administrative Secretary
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