Northborough Local Emergency Planning Committee (NLEPC) Meeting Minutes
February 3, 2011 1:00 P.M. Northborough Fire Headquarters 11 Pierce Street Northborough, MA 01532
Attendees: John W. Coderre, Town Administrator; Denny Drewry, Liaison to Senator Scott Brown; David Durgin, Fire Chief, Emergency Management and LEPC Co-Chair; Bill Farnsworth, Building Inspector; Kimberly Hood, Assistant Town Administrator; Mark Leahy, Police Chief; Jerry LeBlanc, Beaumont Nursing Home Maintenance Director; Nancy Lepore, Hazardous Material Assistant; Bill Lyver, Police Lieutenant; Leslie Rutan, Board of Selectmen; Jamie Terry, Health Agent; Jeffrey Zukowski, MEMA Liaison Area 3&4
Chief David Durgin called the meeting to order at 1:05 and introduced himself and invited attendees to introduces themselves. He also welcomed Mr. Drewry, Liaison to Senator Scott Brown, to the meeting.
Old Business: A motion was made by Ms. Lepore then seconded to forgo the reading of the October 14, 2010 meeting minutes. The motion passed. A motion was made to accept the meeting minutes as written, seconded, and passed by majority vote.
Review of Emergency Plans: Ms. Lepore explained that updates to the two town emergency plans, the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) and the Hazardous Materials Plan (Hazmat Plan), were now complete and printed copies of both plans were sent to Ms. Rand, Head of the Board of Selectmen for review. The CEMP Appendix 1, Appendix 2, and the Maps were printed and available at this meeting. All information for the updates was gathered over the last 7 months through contact to individuals and facilities named in the plans. Ms. Lepore invited attendees to review the plan and comment upon it.
Appendix 1 includes Section A) Summary of facilities in the Hazmat Plan (ex. Special Locations, Critical Infrastructure) in a list format and Section B) Detailed description of facilities in the Hazmat Plan. An upgrade to Section B includes a listing of all designations of a facility. For example; a public school has multiple utilizations as a special location, a shelter, and a public venue.
Appendix 2 includes all inserts specific to the town that are referenced in other parts of the plans.
Ms. Lepore explained the mechanics of creating these plans. Previously, eCEMP (Electronic Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan), was utilized to create the town emergency plans from a secure on-line program offered by the MA Dept. of Public Safety via MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency). A decision was made by town emergency management to keep the updating of these plans in-house and create the plans through the use of an Excel spreadsheet with all town information and also Microsoft Word Mail Merge to incorporate the town data, excluding mapping, into the appropriate sections of the plans. The advantage of keeping and maintaining the plans in-house allows Emergency Management and other key town officials easy access via the Excel spreadsheet to all town critical information stored
in the plans. Through the use of the Excel spreadsheet, individual areas of town can be identified by street or facility type or any other manner of sorting parameters that the Excel program allows for data manipulation.
The Maps were altered by hand using previous eCEMP generated Maps. A future goal for mapping would include the use of MARPLOT’s mapping function within CAMEO (Computer Aided Management of Emergency Operations) or possibly GIS (Geographical Information Systems).
Mapping within the updated plans includes color coded flags that match types of facilities (ex. Red for hazmat facilities) with a number within each flag that correspond to individual facilities. Corresponding lists of facilities now identify the flag color of the type of facility within the list and the number assigned to each facility to make it easier for the user to identify on the maps. Additionally, all designations of a facility are included in the map lists to show the user multiple uses for a facility. This is accomplished by adding the flag colors and flag numbers of other types of designations for a single facility into the list.
Public Outreach: The town website www.town.northborough.ma.us contains a section of web pages under Boards and Committees for the Local Emergency Planning Committee, Ms. Lepore explained. The website explains the purpose and role of the LEPC and contains links to state and federal agencies for hazardous material and right-to-know legislation. It also contains meeting minutes and meeting notices. The meeting notice for this meeting did not go up on the website due to an
error. However, future meeting notices will be posted there. The current meeting notice was only publicly posted by the Town Clerk’s Office.
The LEPC trifold display has been at a number of places including the post office, town hall and the senior center per Ms. Lepore.
Ms. Lepore explained that there have been few calls concerning the LEPC and Hazmat. Ms. Rutan suggested that the LEPC use the Town News portion of the town website to reach the public and to add an email contact to it. Mr. Zukowski suggested that the LEPC do a mass mailing to residents in town and piggy back the LEPC mailing within a town water bill or a Parks & Recreation bulletin. Chief Durgin added that a trifold outreach pamphlet had been created for future distribution.
New Business: Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) for 2009 was recently place on-line at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) website www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/nationalanalysis and the information can be accessed by phone at 1-800-424-9346 according to Ms. Lepore. TRI are those substances released into the environment on a regular and expected basis such as in manufactured goods or by-products. She mentioned that there were no TRI releases in Northborough either in
2008 or 2009 and that one facility was reporting di2ethylhexylphthalate in 2007 which was in the form of extruded plastics.
Mr. Zukowski spoke about the new requirements in the upcoming Tier II reporting for facilities. Trucking routes are now mandatory when reporting Tier II forms. And Massachusetts requires electronic reporting.
Ms. Terry reported that a grant was utilized from the Central MA Regional Planning Council via the Dept. of Homeland Security to purchase and distribute 5 regional public health trailers that include cots, blankets and pillows; and trailer tents in order to allow local public health officials the means to provide emergency first aid. The MA Dept. of Public Health (DPH) assisted with the planning of these purchases. She also noted that the flu season has been quiet to date.
Mr. Farnsworth noted that there was roof load information for citizens on the town website under the Building Department pages. He told attendees that with the excessive amount of snow received this winter, the threat of roof collapse was real. He also discussed methods to deal with ice dams. Chief Durgin, Northborough Fire Department, also mentioned to attendees that there had been several roof collapses in Northborough including at one business facility that sustained over a million dollars damage.
Mr. LeBlanc told the group that Beaumont N.H. is now affiliated with Massachusetts MAPS. He mentioned that there is a command center in Holden for emergency management of their Salmon Family group of nursing homes and that the MAPS plan for the nursing home includes a community room to house people.
Mr. Zukowski told attendees that Small Business Agency (SBA) loans are available for businesses and individuals affected by roof collapses. He also mentioned that eCEMP will soon be up and running again and that it was originally slated to begin again in mid-fall 2010. He also spoke about the Resource Management System (RMS) also coming along in the near future as a tool for emergency planning.
Chief Durgin updated attendees by saying that fire department staff was now trained at their required Level 300 or above within the guidelines of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). He said that appropriate personnel will take the required courses, 701 to 705, to maintain compliance with NIMS.
The meeting adjourned at 2:05 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted,
Nancy Lepore
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