Oxford County
Emergency Management Agency

PO Box 179, 26 Western Avenue
South Paris ME 04281
Ph 207-743-6336 FAX 207-743-7346 oxctyema@megalink.net
Office hours: Monday through Friday 8am-4pm

LEPC Minutes, 25 March 2008

The Oxford County Local Emergency Planning Committee met on Tuesday March 25, 2008 at Rumford Power in Rumford. The following were in attendance:

I. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 4:15 PM by Chairman Scott Parker.

II. Approval of Minutes
Jamie Robinson moved to accept the minutes and Michael Hatch seconded the motion. Vote: Approved

III. Old Business
a. NIMS
Oxford County is still working to bring all towns into compliance. Training is one of the bigger issues. Not only is training tied to funding, it also has shown to greatly enhance the safety and organization of drills, exercises and response.

IV. New Business

a. Treasurers Report
Bill Hussey motioned to accept the Treasurers Report and Patrick Welch seconded the motion. Vote: Approved

b. Chemical Spill Report
Members checked the spill report submitted to the LEPC from the RCC, and the spill report provided by Kara Walker of the DEP.

c. Training Scheduled for April/May/June
Several changes and additions were noted. The Ops Refresher in Naples on April 19 is going to be moved to sometime in May. There will be an Awareness Refresher on March 26 in Hiram. On June 1 Rumford Power will host a drill. NewPage RRT is participating in a Technician class in June. An Ops Refresher is scheduled for April 26 in Hiram. The above changes will be posted on the EMA Website under Training>HazMat. 

The middle school evacuation in Dixfield was reviewed. Overall the event went very well. The school staff, principal and superintendant were well prepared and organized and worked in conjunction with the first responders to evacuate approximately 300 students and transport 16 to Rumford Hospital. The IMAT vehicle was deployed and IC utilized.

d. Exercise Programs – SAD 72 Drill/June
Scenario will be a shooter in the Middle School, and teachers from all 4 schools in the district will be there to review their own plans. The drill will be open to observers, just contact the EMA office prior to doing so. We are currently looking at sometime at the end of June to hold this drill. 

e. Exercise Programs – Western Maine Regional 2008 Exercise
This exercise will incorporate sheltering with people and pets, a nursing home evacuation, and two SAD’s will be involved. There is a mini-Tabletop and a planning meeting scheduled for March 26 at Canton Fire. 

f. Exercise Programs– EHS Facilities
All 6 EHS facilities are scheduled for a tabletop or drill in 2008. 

g. Exercise Programs – 2009/2010 Schedule
Scott has put together a 3 year exercise plan draft through 2010. Any thoughts from the LEPC are welcome. The planning doesn’t have to culminate in a full scale exercise; we are trying to look at viable alternatives, like a tabletop and two smaller drills. It has been suggested to move back to the Norway/South Paris area in 2009 and then to the Southern part of the County in 2010. Since the derailment in 1996 there has been no event in the Central part of the County.

A cross border tabletop with NH is in the works which will center on the Shelburne Dam and an over-topping of the dam or a breach, or possibly the dam in Rumford.

There will be a tabletop in York County on April 5^th that begins five days into the recovery phase; Scott Parker will be in attendance 

h. Oxford County Tier II Reporting Update
We are currently at 80% of all facilities reporting. All EHS facilities have reported.

i. Tier II Open Office Days
Our office will be open to all facilities in need of assistance with Tier II reporting on April 7 & 9 from 10-12 and 1-3pm.  

j. IMAT Type 4 Team Status
MEMA has recently sent out requirements to formalize IMAT team organization and record keeping. Oxford County has 12 folks on our team and a meeting regarding new requirements and organization was held immediately following the LEPC meeting.

Each town has a Type 5 IMAT team that consists of the Fire Chief and his folks who respond to short term incidents. A Type 4 team is a County level, regional team that is prepared to respond to incidents that extend into the 12-24 hour operational period. The team is there to provide assistance to the organization that is commanding the event. 

k. Advanced Hands-On CAMEO 6/9-6/11
Bill Hussey motioned pay up to $650 for hotel and travel accommodations for Michael Hatch to attend this training in Boston. Allyson seconded the motion. Vote: Approved 

l. New SERC Forms
The SERC training application has been revised to reflect the call for a 45 day lead time on training grant requests, at a minimum the forms must be submitted to the SERC for approval 20 days prior to the training. The previous timeline requested only a 14 day lead time for SERC approval and suggested no preferred lead time for submission to the LEPC. 

m. SCIP (State Communications Interoperability Program) Grant Update
There was a presentation on March 18^th at Paris Fire detailing this grant program. Scott has signed up to be on the State level SCIP grant committee. This grant is tied to communications at local, regional and county level. The awards consist of 1.9 million the first year and another 1.9 million the second year and the window should open sometime in the summer of 2008. To be eligible to participate in the grant process, the application must be regional.

In advance of participating in the SCIP grant the state has requested all jurisdictions report on what they currently have via CASM (Communications Assets Survey and Mapping). The CASM forms are available on our website at http://www.megalink.net/~oxctyema/CountyFF.htm  

n. United Way/FEMA Emergency Food an Shelter distributions
Annually, funds are made available to states by Congress through the McKinney-Vento Act. In Maine the funds are then portioned out to Counties. Oxford County had received $37,817 this year. A nine member local board made up of individuals from community service groups is convening to award the funds on March 26. Approximately twelve grant applications are submitted and subsequently awarded annually. In Oxford County the majority of these awards go to food pantries. A portion of the funds can be used for mass feeding like the Norway and Rumford community lunches. Only ¼ of the 40 area food pantries that serve Oxford County typically apply. 

Other comments
Michael Hatch reported that the CMRRC has written/updated a new HAZWOPER course and are hoping to pilot it in April at CMMC. The course has been approved by the CDC and is currently in front of the SERC for approval.

Stephens Memorial will hold a small scale drill in August to exercise the hospital evacuation plan. 

Bill Hussey reported that NewPage RRT has sent 14 individuals to the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston in the last month. He also expressed concerns for the potential of the State appropriating the SERC funds for other uses in hopes to quell the state budgetary issues. This has been done in the past and Scott agreed to address this issue with Rob McAleer. 

o. Location and Timing of next meeting
Our next meeting will be held at 4pm on May 27^th at the Oxford County EOC located in the basement of the County Courthouse, 26 Western Av, South Paris.

p. Adjournment
Scott Parker motioned to adjourn the meeting. Allyson Hill seconded the motion. Meeting Adjourned at 5:32pm 

Respectfully submitted,

 Allyson Hill

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Last modified: 05/30/08