COASTAL PLAIN LEPC GENERAL MEETING September 15, 2011

Members Present:

Bob Blaschke – President Rick McLester – Vice President William “Ski” Zagorski – Sec/Treas.

Leroy Moody – Board Member Fred Nardini – Resource & Funding Stan Upton – Refugio County

Delores Bacon - Health & Medical Jeff Ross – First Call Network Mattie Atkinson – SPC Floodplain

Missy Beck – SPC Safety Terri – Olivares – SPC E911 Macy Culpepper – San Pat County

Joe Herebin – Plains Marketing Daniel Escobar – TCEQ Regan Carriger – NuStar Pipeline

Jason Burnell – RTFC Sheldon Wiggington – Refugio Co SO Aaron Nichols – Vestas Papalote Creek

Brandon Luttrell – OxyChem Eugenio DeLeon – Sinton PD Timothy Vanlandingham – Portland FD

Eloy Salazar – Sinton EMS Margaret Paton – ARC Robert Gibson – Mathis EMS/VFD

I. Call to Order/Approval of Minutes: The meeting was held at the San Patricio County Civic Center. President Bob Blaschke called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. He welcomed everyone and said he was glad to be here and then asked for everyone to introduce themselves. He gave everyone a few minutes to look over the July Meeting minutes and then asked if there was a motion to approve them. Fred Nardini made the motion to approve the July Executive and General Meeting minutes and it was 2^nd by Brandon Luttrell. The motion carried.

II. Executive Report: Bob said at the Executive meeting they talked about the Alert System and they did not make any decisions. They are currently under negotiations with First Call Network and they want to move forward. He said he will let Jeff Ross speak more about his system under Special Topics.

III. Financial Report: Ski said there is $39,055.04 in the checking account. Bob asked if everyone had a chance to look over the financial report and then asked for a motion to approve the financial report. Delores Bacon made the motion to approve the financial report and it was 2^nd by Stan Upton.

1. Communications – Leroy Moody said there is nothing new to report. One of the new repeaters went down, they had it checked but it is not working like it should. Rick McLester said Aransas County Sheriff’s Office has the 800MHz up and running and they are running a dual VHF. The VFD has been upgraded to multiple radios. They are installing a new tower and they are ready to go.

2. Exercise & Design – Rickey McLester Jr. said there is nothing new to report on.

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

4. Health & Medical – Delores Bacon said Brandon Luttrell came and talked to the Health Department nurses about the Shelter in Place Program. There were twelve nurses in attendance. She said everyone should go and see the new movie out called Contagion because it is pretty realistic and could happen.

5. Public Information & Awareness – Bob Blaschke said he spoke to the Portland Rotary Club and explained what the LEPC is and what they do with the Shelter in Place Program. He asked Brandon Luttrell if he had anything to say. Brandon said he has samples of the tee shirts he wants to hand out to the kids during the Shelter in Place program and he got bids on 250 shirts. They are working on a draft letter to send out to the schools about the program. He said as Delores had mentioned he spoke to the nurses and it was a good turnout. Ski then explained the Shelter in Place program more in-depth for those who are not familiar with it.

6. Resource & Funding – Fred Nardini said right now they are in the quiet time as far as contributions and they are looking pretty healthy financially.

7. Training – Ski said the HotZone Conference is coming up in October. He applied for a scholarship but did not get it. The LEPC usually sends someone every year to this conference. He has been going for years and said if someone else would like to go maybe the LEPC can fund it. Bob asked if there were any volunteers who would like to attend, hearing none Ski said he would go. Bob said they would cover the expenses and he asked if there was a motion for the LEPC to fund the expenses for Ski to attend the conference. Fred Nardini made the motion for the LEPC to fund the expenses for Ski to attend the HotZone Conference and it was 2^nd by Mattie Atkinson. Ski then reminded everyone they have to be NIMS compliant by September 30^th. Rick McLester said they also have to have their equipment TNRNN registered.

Jeff Ross of First Call Network thanked the group for having him here and if you have any questions to please feel free to ask. He explained what the First Call Program is. The First Call Network Emergency Notification Service uses voice, text, email, etc. to instantly alert your citizens, students, staff, and others through a GIS notification service. The program will instantly set activations in motion to quickly inform citizens about evacuation routes. In addition, employees, first responders as well as an unlimited number of your other emergency support personnel can be quickly called using predefined lists. The notification alerts can be sent via voice to landline, cell and VOIP phones, via text to SMS devices and via email to individual email addresses. Jeff said you can personalize the system to meet your need. Their company will also give you training on how to use the system. You can have an administrator and up to seventeen other users. This would be ideal for the police and fire departments. He showed the group how to log onto the web based system and a rundown of website. He showed how to activate a message and how to manage the account. He showed how an administrator can set up other user accounts and how to customize it. The system is good because it saves all the messages and you can have them for future reference if needed. Citizens will be required to logon and fill out their information and you can also use a current database of your own to add as well. The system will cost $26,800 for a year with unlimited use and after that it would require a three year contract. A discussion followed about the financial aspects of the system.

Joni Kurz said the Odem ISD does not have an alert system and thinks this would be a good system for them to use. Several other members asked Jeff various questions about the system. Rick said he would like to see a current client list of theirs so he can get some feedback from someone who is using the system. Bob said at the executive meeting he suggested the Emergency Managers from Aransas, Refugio and San Patricio Counties be the administrators for the system and Ski and Rick accepted. Stan Upton said he would need some help and Terri Olivares volunteered to help him. Bob said they have some homework to do.

Fred Nardini said he has been with the LEPC for fifteen years and they first used a “can and string” system for emergency notifications then they went with a company out of New York that charged $100 per minutes. He said this sounds like a good system but they really need to take their time in making a decision. They are averaging around $12,000 per year with incoming Tier II Contributions and he would like to see that increase and there is no reason it should not. He urged some of the industry representative present to please consider donating more to the LEPC. The money is being used to help the citizens and he would like to see more support. Bob thanked Fred for his comment. Bob said at the executive meeting they decided to not make a decision on purchasing the system until they brought it before the general members and also had more time to consider all the factors. Bob then asked if there was a motion to continue negotiations with First Call Network and maybe rewrite the contract. Leroy Moody made the motion to continue negotiations with the First Call Network and it was 2^nd by Mattie Atkinson. Bob thanked Jeff Ross for speaking to the group.

VII. Next Meeting Schedule: The next LEPC meeting will be November 17, 2011.

IX. Adjourn: With no further business Bob Blaschke adjourned the meeting at 2:10 p.m. The motion to adjourn was made by Delores Bacon and it was 2^nd by Mattie Atkinson.