Meramec Regional Emergency Planning Committee
Minutes for the Meeting dated
January 17, 2007 12:00 noon

Members Present

Call to Order
Chairman Dawn Warren, called the meeting to order. Attendees present introduced themselves.

Approval of Agenda
Bob Hutson made the motion to approve the agenda. Margaret Biolsi seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Approval of Minutes
Margaret Biolsi made the motion to approve the minutes. John Lucas seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Financial Report
Staff Cheryl Dupes provided financial report (details attached). Margaret Biolsi made the motion to approve the financial report. Craig Bone seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Old Business
Administrative Report: Tammy Snodgrass reported that a NIMS 300 class sponsored by MREPC was held on Dec 7-8, 2006. Ten people attended, mostly from the public health sector. She attended the pipeline meeting in October 2006.

Jim Pasly, Area I coordinator has been developing Hazmat tabletop exercises for Dent and Maries counties. He has been in contact with Ms. Snodgrass on the planning of those events. The first exercise was held in Dent County in December, but Ms. Snodgrass was not able to attend. She hopes to attend the one in Maries County and will email the date to members once it has been set.

Tier II forms are coming in now and staff expects them to be coming in through April 2007. Staff will also be mailing out the plan update questionnaire to area emergency response agencies to complete and return. Ms. Snodgrass explained that these questionnaires are used to correct and update the plan. She also stated that MRPC is in the process of hiring a staff person to fill a position that has been empty for some time. Once the position has been hired, he/she will be responsible for the plan update. Ms. Snodgrass will have the draft plan update ready for review in June 2007.

Training Grants: Dawn Warren reported the training grant subcommittee did not meet at 11 am. because there was not a quorum. Tammy Snodgrass reported on the followup with the Washington County grant that was suspended at the September meeting. She stated that there had been a considerable amount of miscommunication with that grant and that she had given them one more opportunity to provide budget information and a revised scope of work, but that they had declined to do so. She went on to state that in the future she would be conscientious of communicating with grantees but that she would like to encourage committee members to not just show up for meetings, but to take information back to their respective counties and share it with other emergency response agencies. Committee members responsibilities include disseminating information.

Dawn Warren reported that the grant subcommittee has worked diligently in putting together a grant application requirements/criteria and scoring system to ensure that the grant fund is spent appropriately. Grantees are required to follow the criteria set in the grant requirements. The representative who attends the meeting is expected to share these requirements and criteria with the county.

Ms. Warren stated that there is $6,000 left in the grant fund and the committee needs to make a decision today on what to do with these dollars. The three options are:

1. Roll the dollars into next year’s budget.
2. Open the grants up again and accept another round of applications.
3. Use the funds to provide one big training.

Discussion included:  restating that one of the MREPC’s purposes is to provide hazmat training for emergency responders in the region; and, one, big training does not provide as much coverage in the region as several smaller trainings. Margaret Biolsi made the motion to approve the decision to reopen another round of grants. Bill Patt seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Dawn Warren asked for volunteers to serve on the grant subcommittee. Several people volunteered to serve. The new grant subcommittee will be Les Murdock, Bob Hutson, Margaret Biolsi, Bill Patt and Kraig Bone. Mr. Bone brought up concerns about conflict of interest if he served on the committee, as he also provides training. There was some discussion of conflict of interest, but the committee agreed that whenever a conflict occurred, the subcommittee member with the conflict would be expected to abstain from decision making on that grant but could still be a valuable resource for the subcommittee. Bob Hutson made the motion to approve the new grant subcommittee. Margaret seconded.

New Business
There was no new business.

Announcement of Upcoming Meetings
Dawn Warren reported that 2007 SEMA/MEPA conference will be in Branson at the Château on the Lake on April 4-6.

Tammy Snodgrass informed the participants that tentative NIMS for elected officials will be in March 2007 in conjunction with the MRPC Board meeting.

Setting of Date and Time for Next Meeting
The next meeting date is set for April 25, 2007 at noon.

Adjournment
Bob Hutson made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Kraig Bone seconded it. The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.