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12-13-2012 LEPC MinutesLEPC Minutes December 13, 2012 C & E’s Restaurant—12:00 pm Members Present: Barker Danny Cook Composites Polymers Barksdale Jessie Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Bartos Myles US EPA Boswell Pete Pittsylvania County Bowman Brenda Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Bowman Steve Pittsylvania County Broadfoot Philip City of Danville Police Department Bruner Chris American Red Cross Cholko Michael Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality Conner John Virginia Dept. of Transportation Dishman Steve City of Danville Fire Department Eagle David City of Danville Fire Department Gauldin Mark Williams Pipeline Grogan Bobbie Southern Virginia Mental Health Institute Kelly Terry Pittsylvania County Lesie Sid Virginia State Police Mace Leslie Virginia Department of Forestry Mitchell Chris Virginia Department of Health Motley Craig Sartomer USA, LLC Niesen Ric Cook Composites Polymers Sherrill John Commonwealth of Virginia Smith Al City of Danville Smith Steve American Red Cross Thurman Brian Virginia Department of Emergency Management Walker Eddie Pittsylvania County Summary of Meeting:  Chairman David Eagle called the meeting to order at approximately 12:00 pm. Following a moment of silence everyone had an opportunity to go through the buffet line.  The meeting reconvened at 12:30 pm and Chief Eagle asked for approval of the minutes of the last meeting and they were approved following a motion by Steve Bowman and seconded by Mike Cholko.  Chairman & vice chairman report: Chief Eagle advised he did not have anything new except for several items that would be included in the presentation and discussion items. Vice chairman Bowman advised he also had one item to be included in the presentation and discussion item.  Subcommittee reports: a. CERT Reports.  Al Smith reported that the City had classes planned for the public in January and one for business starting in February. He is also working to schedule classes for neighborhood watches, probably in March and April.  Eddie Walker reported that the County has recently graduated 43 students. He stated that the classes had significant impact on the students and they all seemed sorry when the classes ended. He also reported that one of the students has already had the opportunity to use the knowledge gained from the classes when she helped her grandmother to properly extinguish a grease fire.  Al Smith stated that Danville and Pittsylvania County CERT teams are recognized in the state and FEMA Region 3 and nationally as two of the most progressive CERT organizations in the country, having almost 1000 trained members Chief Eagle asked for a round of applause to show appreciation for the work of the Pittsylvania and Danville CERT teams b. Hazmat reports  Steve Dishman reported the Propane Gas Association has donated a transfer pump to the Danville Haz-Mat Team to provide faster and safer off-loading of propane. The team has also received a grant from Homeland Security to purchase equipment to identify chemicals, to provide upgrade of Level A suits and to replace outdated equipment. In association with Henry County the team has also received an area detection device system to enable the remote monitoring of a large area. All these items are valued at a total of $124,000 and have been received at no additional cost to the team or the community.  A large scale training exercise is planned for the spring. This will be a multi agency training exercise, and more details will be forthcoming.  Presentation / Discussion topics a. Steve Smith of the Red Cross reported on the agency’s vast response for Hurricane Sandy which involved an overall total of 15,000 Red Cross workers with 2000 still on the scene. A total of 368 shelters were open for 157,000 but now that most of the victims are back at home, living with family or are in a hotel or motel only one Red Cross shelter is open. He stated that 8.7 million meals have been served, and the mobile kitchen was still in operation and that 75 response vehicles are still on location. Approximately 6.5 million bulk distribution items have been distributed—brooms, mops, clothing, first aid kits, and so forth. Health and mental health contacts were made for 98,000 victims. The regional Red Cross offices provided 75 workers for the relief effort. He stated that individuals are still coming to volunteer. Mr. Smith also announced that in the past there have been separate chapters in Danville, and Martinsville but these have now been combined into one chapter—the Piedmont Chapter. Offices will be maintained in both areas and Chris Bruner has been hired to provide a more concentrated effort for the region. b. Sid Leslie of the State Police reported on a new federal program—SHRP-2 (Strategic Highway Research Project)—that is being adopted by the state. The program is a training concept for the safe efficient mitigation of highway traffic incidents by all public safety entities—law enforcement, fire, EMS and the private sector such as wrecker companies. It is a concept to be taught to public safety providers at the local level. c. New business—Election of officers: Chief Eagle stated that presently the bylaws require the city and county to be represented in the chair and vice- chair position. Currently Chief Eagle is the chair and Steve Bowman is the vice-chair. As currently written, the bylaws have Steve Bowman becoming the chairman and Steve Dishman becoming the vice-chairman effective January 2013. In January 2014 Jim Davis and Chief Eagle would be the chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. Discussion by Steve Bowman included the continuation of the officers as is for one more year which would provide time for consideration of changes to the bylaws, particularly in regard to the election of officers. The need for multiple revisions to update the bylaws was also indicated by Chief Eagle. A motion was made by Steve Bowman and seconded by Al Smith to leave the slate of officers as is for another year—with Chief Eagle as chairman and Steve Bowman as vice-chairman—to allow time for the bylaws to be reviewed. The motion was approved. Another motion was made by Steve Bowman and seconded by Steve Dishman for the bylaws to be reviewed, with suggested changes proposed and presented to the members for approval/adoption at a future meeting. The motion was approved. A Bylaws Committee comprised of Jim Davis, David Eagle, Myles Bartos and Steve Bowman was established to review the bylaws and present suggested changes.  The next LEPC meeting is scheduled for February 14th at Mary’s Diner, 1203 Piney Forest Road, Danville, VA, at 12:00 pm.  Chief Eagle adjourned the meeting at 1:15 pm.