Rick McLester – Vice President                      Rickey McLester – Halo Flight                 Stan Upton – Refugio EMC

           Leroy Moody – Board Member                       William Zagorski – Sec/Treas.                  Terri Olivares – SPC E911

           Macy Culpepper – San Pat Co.                        Fred Nardini – Board Member                  Don Pullin – Refugio Co.

           Terry Simpson – Board Member                      Mattie Atkinson – Floodplain                    Delores Bacon – Health & Med

           Missy Beck – SPC Safety                                 Brandi Fisher – DPS TDEM                      Shanna Owens – Ingleside

           Timothy Vanderham – Portland FD                 Jim Leahey – Portland FD                         Sandy Olson – ARC

           Regan Carriger – NuStar                                 Robert Munguia – NuStar                         JoAnn Ehmann – IOB VFD

           Dick Ehmann – IOD VFD                                 Sonya Lopez Sosa – Port of CC                Carsten Meyer – AP EMC

           Craig Gromer – USCG                                     Nicole Starr – USCG                                 Lolo Hernandez – Taft ISD

           Bob Blaschke – Dupont                                     Brandon Luttrell – OxyChem                   Jason Burnell - RTFC

I.        Call to Order/Approval of Minutes:  The meeting was held in Sinton at the Sheriff’s Department Training Room.  Vice President Rick McLester called the meeting to order at 1:06 p.m.  He welcomed everyone and asked them to introduce themselves. He said Bob Blaschke was at a prior commitment and is on his way to the meeting now. He then asked everyone to look over the November Executive and General meeting minutes. Jim Leahey made the motion to approve the November Executive and General minutes as presented and it was 2^nd by Sandy Olson.

II.       Executive Report:  

Rick McLester said the Appreciation Dinner arrangements have been made and he asked Mattie Atkinson to speak more about it. Mattie said the Appreciation Dinner is set for February 24^th at the San Patricio County Civic Center and POETS Restaurant will be doing the catering again. The guest speaker was supposed to be State Representative Todd Hunter but it looks like he has prior commitments but there is a backup speaker. Invitations are available now and she will also be emailing invitations out.  Please RSVP to her as soon as possible.    

III.    Financial Report: Ski said they received a $2,000.00 contribution from Exxonmobile. There is $37,108.59 in the money market account.  There was not a motion to approve the financial report.           

IV.   Subcommittee Reports:

1.      Communications – Leroy Moody said they are still working on a tower site. Ski said he has located several possible sites on the east end and is working on it. Rick McLester said Aransas County received ninety thousand dollars from Homeland Security for radio repeaters and antennae’s. This will help the fire departments/first responders to talk on their walkie talkies from one end of their county to the other. He anticipates the project to be completed by February 15^th.        

2.    Exercise & Design – Rickey McLester Jr. said at the executive meeting they set the date for an exercise planning meeting which will be held on March 10 at the Backstreet Café in Sinton. He is working on his list of all the players he will invite such as Fire Chiefs, Police Chiefs, EMS and all first responders. He told the group to feel free to invite others who may benefit from this meeting.         

3.    Hazard Analysis & Vulnerability – Rick McLester said he had nothing new to report.  

4.    Health & Medical – Delores Bacon said she will be attending a RAC meeting next week and will let them know about the exercise planning meeting in March.    

               5.   Public Information & Awareness – Bob Blaschke was still not present so Rick asked Brandi Fisher to introduce herself and speak. Brandi said she is the new DPS/RLO in Corpus. She said the state of Texas supports the local communities during disasters. Most smaller communities have had to cope and get their own resources in the past. She will make sure the state will come in and help and get life back in order after any disasters. She said she just returned from Miami where she was attending the National Hurricane Conference. They do the forecasting for anything tropical. They covered a lot and it was an eye opener for her. They worked on the SLOSH program with various models of inland flooding. They now have a new overlay that you can put onto google earth to find locations easier.  During hurricane Katrina in Mississippi water was fifteen miles inland in one location. She said it is not hurricane season yet but it does not hurt to be prepared now. Rick thanked Brandi for speaking and being at the meeting and he hopes to have her at future meetings.

6.   Resource & Funding – Fred Nardini said you have already heard the financial report from Ski about the $2,000.00 contribution from Exxonmobile Pipeline. Tier II Contributions letters will be going out in March so that is when more contributions are expected.        

7.  Training – Ski said all the training is now available on the preparingtexas.org website. He is working on getting a three day Hazmat Awareness Class down here this year.    

V.        Action Items: There were no action items.   

VI.       Special Topics: There were no special topics.

         VII.     Next Meeting Schedule:  Ski said meetings are normally held on the third Thursday of every other month but the San Patricio County Awards Banquet is March 17^th so the next LEPC meeting will be March 24, 2011.

VIII.     Public Comments: Rick thanked Regan Carriger of NuStar for the complimentary rain gauges and ponchos she had up front for handouts. Rick then said Rickey McLester will now give a presentation on Halo Flight. Rickey gave a powerpoint presentation and explained each film as he went along. He said he is the communications director for Halo Flight. The 24hr phone number is 1-800-776-4256 and the regular phone number is 361-265-0509 and they are located on Old Brownsville Road in Corpus. There are twenty six counties in their service area that covers 28,000 square miles. Halo Flight is a nonprofit organization that helps the community and was started in 1987 and they moved to Corpus in 1989. In 2010 they started an inner city transport between the major hospitals. Since their beginning they have transported over 12,000 critically ill patients. Their prior aircraft was a Bell 206L aircraft and they now use the Bell 407 aircraft. They are staffed 24/7 and they have a cruising range of 400 miles at 150mph. They are equipped with night vision goggles, weather radios, terrain advisers, 800 MHz, satellite phones and have a one patient capacity. Halo Flight is certified by the FAA and the Department of Health. They have four Pilots on duty who have put in over 5000 rotor hours, six critical care nurses are on the staff as well as six critical care paramedics. There are nine communications specialist that are all certified which Rickey oversees. They have three aircraft mechanics on duty and five on their administrative staff. He said if you call for Halo Flight you should be prepared to give them your location, the nature of your call, your radio frequency etc. He said individuals should not call for Halo Flight, this will be done by authorized first responders who will make the decision to when a patient should be halo flighted. Pipelines with paramedic can call. He asked if there were any questions and hearing none Rick asked him to explain the Guardian Plan. Rickey asked Carsten Meyer if he would like to speak about it. Carsten said Halo Flight offers the Guardian Plan which is an individual or family subscription for an annual fee of $25 which allows you and your family to get picked up for free. Nueces County Electric Coop. offers the Guardian Plan at a cost of $1 per month which is only $12 annually. He said the San Patricio County Electric Coop. will be offering the plan this year.  He said it is a small price to pay if you are ever in need of Halo Flight otherwise with no plan it would cost you $10,000 to use. There is more information about how to sign up for the Guardian Plan on Halo Flights website. Rick thanked Rickey and Carsten for speaking.

Bob Blaschke then showed up and said he apologized for being late but he had prior commitments. He thanked Rickey for his presentation. He said they did not do the shelter in place program at the schools during the fall. They are getting ready to start back up and Sherri Erwin will be getting the notices out to the schools soon. Rick said he would like to know the date’s especially when they go to Aransas and Refugio schools so he could attend a couple of them. Bob said he will get those to Rick. Bob then said he has read a few stories on the CSB (U.S. Chemical Safety Board) which posts Chemical accidents in the news. One story was about how a pipeline company was purging a gas wellhead in Louisiana and it blew up some of the workers who were two miles away. Another story on CSB was about a gas station propane tank that leaked into a restroom of the building and blew up the employees. It just shows you what can happen in certain incidents. Bob said he would like to touch on a safety measure during this cold weather. As people are bundled up for the cold wearing heavier coats with hoods to be sure and take the time to look both ways when walking as it could be a deterrent to what is around you. He noticed one of their employees walking across the railroads just looking straight ahead. Just make sure you look left and right to see if it is clear to walk first. Rick McLester said he would like to close the meeting with another plea for members to please try and bring a friend or coworker to these meetings. He wants to fill the room like they used to be ten years ago. It will be worthwhile to them and he just wants to see more involvement. 

IX.      Adjourn: With no further business Rick McLester adjourned the meeting at 1:50 p.m.

William E. Zagorski Sr. - LEPC Secretary/Treasurer