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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDecember 7 EmergencyCommitteeMinutesDEC_04_DRAFT Page 1 2/28/2020 MINUTES TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 @ 7:30 PM Town Hall @ Bullis School 1. Roll call: a. Members Attending: i. Jim Abraham, W6EB, Chairman ii. Dru Anderson, KG6LAD, Secretary iii. Robert Anderson, KC6ZWG iv. Peter Berman, K6PJB v. Ray Egan, W6FQY vi. Rick Ellinger, KJ6NU vii. Bob Hall, KF6DHX viii. Ed Jones, W7WPO ix. Scott Overstreet, N6NXI x. Al Whaley, N6RPR xi. Robert “Smitty” Smithwick,W6CS xii. Sam Wood, K6MSR b. Members Absent i. Bob Fenwick, K6GX ii. David Gilmour, WQ1K iii. Bob Lisbonne, KG6HOD iv. Maynard Stevenson, W7MVT v. David Pratt, K6LWT 2. Minutes. There was no meeting in November. Holiday refreshments brought by the officers were enjoyed. 3. Report from Chairman Jim Abraham: a. Jim reviewed the status of EOC antenna system and noted that he had spent time with town planning staff on the proposal and needs. Town Council had approved of the concept; now the staff is reviewing details. The topic is scheduled for town planning commission meeting Dec.9. b. Al Whaley gave brief update on the solar panel project at LAH town hall site. c. Regarding antenna activity at the La Cresta tank site. Dean Warshawsky is the new council liaison. We will defer to his advice. d. Jim is doing an inventory of equipment, including assigned HTs and related equipment. e. He reviewed standing committee requirements, including attendance and associate member designation requirements. i. There was a discussion of the specifics of associate membership requirements and an agreement that we will finalize the designation and role at the January meeting, including equipment assignments. ii. At this point, Ed Radlo is now a designated associate member. f. The group scheduled a work party Dec. 8 to build out radio space. Another work party will be scheduled in January to ensure equipment is in place for emergency drill and response. Rick Ellinger will lead the equipment readiness locations in EOC. g. There was a brief discussion of GMRS – General Mobile Radio and reference to the town’s Emergency Preparedness Committee coordination. 4. Report from Secretary Dru Anderson. a. Town drill report. Dru reported on the recent town drill and her and Ed Jones participation at the EOC. Ed Jones was net control; Dru did the “pseudo field work” with designated town staff person; Bob Anderson remotely checked in during the drill. The drill was conducted by Town Staff. b. SPECS report i. She reported briefly on the SPECS board meeting in November. EmergencyCommitteeMinutesDEC_04_DRAFT Page 2 2/28/2020 ii. Dru asked for a repeater report from Scott Overstreet. He reviewed the activity of the repeater group at SPECS and the technical progress. iii. She reminded the group that January is LAH month to run SPECS Monday night net control. c. In conjunction with the repeater discussion, Smitty Smithwick reported on his work with county communication and Larry Carr to make available to the county the DX Club repeater. He noted that the County is challenged by being unable to have the whole county have effective access to a single repeater. The availability of the DX repeater will be a big help to resolving that challenge. Larry Carr now has access code to the repeater and it will be used in county drills. The call is W6TI and it will be available for ARES, as well as SPECS, which should improve the county ability. It is at frequency 147.360 with 110.0 tone. 5. Report from Bob Fenwick, town council liaison. Deferred due to absence. 6. Report from Rick Ellinger, EC: a. State of the state of Emergency Communications and related readiness and in general, noted that although many things are in place, there is room for further preparedness. It was noted during discussion that, since Ed Radlo is now associate, we need a new training officer. b. His detailed report notes are attached at the end of these minutes. 7. New Business: a. Jim proposed an election of new officers. Since there was a quorum of attendance, the election proceeded. Results were by unanimous vote and uncontested. i. Dru Anderson was elected to Chair position. ii. Bob Anderson was elected to Vice Chair. iii. Rick Ellinger was elected to Secretary. It was further unanimously agreed that since it is helpful to have more than one person recording information, that Ed Jones be elected to assistant secretary. b. By acclamation, the LAH ECC recognized the service and expressed appreciation of Bob Fenwick for his service as liaison to the committee and his work and support of the committee’s objectives. 8. Presentations from the floor: 9. The meeting was adjourned at 8:54 p.m. Motion by Bob Anderson; seconded by Bob Hall. a. Next meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 @ 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall @ Bullis School. Rick Ellinger, EC, Readiness Report Details: LAH ECC meeting Dec. 7, 2004: • YELLOW REPORT: CAUTION: o Staffing: We are for the most part OK on staffing for drills and emergencies, but need improvement in on-the-air monitoring of the repeater frequency. o We lack an effective notification capability unless, for instance, everyone feels an earthquake. At risk – ad hoc flood coverage, fire coverage, spill coverage. o Recommendation:  Set up a phone tree/rings, at least for callup. o SPECS repeater coverage condition:  The remote receiver in the north part of town coverage is compromised because of access issues.  The ability to cross link to other county radio repeater is questionable.  Recommendation: • One of the remedies is to use the the DX repeater on Black Mountain. 147.36 110.9 tone and skip usage of OQS repeater. • (Note: Smitty reported on the positive results of that effort.) o The LAH Town Repeater: Rick has concern for its weatherability, but it is otherwise good o Physical conditions at the Town EOC:  Conditions are in somewhat shaky implementation, and there is a need to have all radios all checked and run more often and in position.  (Note: see other minutes in which a work party to do same was set up.) EmergencyCommitteeMinutesDEC_04_DRAFT Page 3 2/28/2020  Subsistence supplies at EOC: None. Insufficient supplies for a winter emergency o Packet operation: Bottom line it is non functional from the town.  Under present conditions, it will require courier service in emergency. o Training – Need to revisit identification of training and process. o Weak or no connection with the county sheriff except for one deputy, who is also a ham and occasionally assigned to LAH. o Poor ability within the county for control operators on the repeaters. o Fair to good relationship but no documented working arrangements presently with county Fire. Need clarification about how to interact with radios, fire, police and ham. o ACTION: Grow these relationships through Town Public Safety Officer Steve Garcia. We continue to enjoy a good relationship with the County EOC staff. • GREEN REPORT: o Good points: We have good operators and redundant net control capability. o Good relationship with County, but unknown relationship with the emergency managers association. Good relationship with our city manager as well as with Marsha Hovey, paid Cupertino emergency manager. • RED REPORT: o Neighborhood coverage is poor. We need a better ability to go mobile. Seems to be OK now except for wide needs on earthquake scenario. o Need a better way to tell officials we shadow what we can do and what we cannot do as radio operators. Primarily, we are communicators, but often we are asked to be full assistants bordering on deputies.  Suggestion: Have a card to give the authority person stating who you are, what you are authorized to do, who is your authority that you are acting under.