Adams Working on Emergency Management Update
ADAMS, Mass. — Town officials' effort to better coordinate communications and manage emergencies is beginning to show some results.
Emergency Management director Richard Kleiner and Executive Assistant to the Town Administrator Kevin Towle presented an update on the town's emergency management plan at a recent workshop meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
"So far we have been able to have several meetings engaging several departments within the town government structure as well as the fire district and the ambulance service," Towle said. "We want to bring everyone to the table to discuss improved communication and better response."
The updated was prompted by this past summer's boil water ordered issued by the Water District, a separate entity from the town. Town leaders, officials, and administrators were not all informed about the order.
Along with the fall flooding that caused more than $2 million in damage in town, it was agreed that both the plan and lines of communication needed to be overhauled.
Towle said one of the town's first charges was to make the plan easier to use.
"It was really big and difficult to navigate through if you don't know what you are looking for," he said. "So part of the process is going to be to make this an electronic document that will make it a lot easier to access."
He said the updated plan will clearly define what each department does in different scenarios and how information is dispersed.
Towle also urged the town to adopt the National Incident Management System and recommended that all those involved in emergency response and the town take training – which the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has offered to cover.
"The goal is that all of the staff who would have a role in emergency management response and recovery would receive this training," Towle said. "We hope this is the first of many trainings the town can provide so we can get everyone up to the appropriate level of training."
Chairman John Duval asked what role he or a future chairman would have in the process and said he felt there should be direct involvement.
"I want to know when there is a major fire in town as the chairmen and I want that information instead of going on Facebook and finding out," Duval said. "The chairman is almost equal from a team perspective and I want to be involved directly when things are happening."
Kleiner said the chairman is heavily involved in the process and will be the ultimate decision maker after talking to the emergency management team.
"He is the decision maker at the ELC and if a decision has to be made, he is the decision maker based on information he gets through everybody that is out in the field," he said. "He is the highest elected official -- he or she is that person."
Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan added that the plan will also have redundancies built in, in case the chairman is unavailable.
Kleiner said the plan now works in more communication points so he is informed even of minor incidents that could develop into larger ones. He cited the Water Department specifically and noted that he would be kept more in the loop.
"I think we can look back at what happened in August with the water and we can say it was not necessarily communicated in the best way out of the gate," he said.
He added that if there are flooding issues he is typically notified by the Department of Public Works. With snow emergencies, he is usually updated on road conditions from the police department.
Selectman Joseph Nowak said he had concerns about the elderly and young children especially in extreme temperatures and power outages. He said although he thought the Code Red telephone/text system was effective, he asked it was possible to install emergency horns in town.
"I thought it was a really good system when I was younger. When the horn would go off and you knew it was a real emergency," Nowak said. "…We should look into that because I think it would help our community. We have a lot of dead spots in town."
The conversation then turned to the fall flooding and Cesan was asked if the town has had any luck recouping the $2.5 million they borrowed to make emergency repairs.
Cesan had nothing specific but said the town is working toward applying for a Pre-Disaster Recovery Grant -- which would require a completed emergency response document.
"This is all being fast-tracked," she said. "We have a lot of work to do but we are all on board with getting the parts of the plan to the different members of the emergency management team … we will give this our best shot."
She added that the town was able to change the focus of its Municipal Vulnerability Action Grant to address issues on the Southwick Brook, which flooded during the fall storms.
Before closing, Kleiner said he has been through plan updates before and is confident that this one will really make some needed improvements.
"I think the way we are doing it is the right way and as long as we keep doing it that way things will improve," he said.
Tags: emergency preparedness,
