LEPC tables its Response and Preparedness resolution

The Holmes County Local Emergency Planning Committee met recently to pass its recent resolution for its required annual update for Holmes County’s Chemical Emergency Response and Preparedness Plan in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 3750.04, but a lack of quorum prevented the group from doing so.

Thus, Holmes EMA Assistant Director Jordan Tschiegg said they would table the resolution to a later date in the October meeting, which must take place early in the month because the submission must be made prior to the mid-October deadline.

The Holmes County Local Emergency Planning Committee performed its required full-scale exercise on May 11, executing the smallest of details to the satisfaction of a panel of EMA directors from around the state and earning a report with high marks for its effort.

The LEPC full-scale exercise took place at the Holmes County Fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge and ended with a trip to the outdoor hazmat tent at Pomerene Hospital. In between members from local law enforcement, fire departments and Pomerene Hospital nailed their effort to contain a hydrochloric acid spill and transport two patients to the hospital.

Despite the glowing marks, there were several areas where the visiting directors felt the committee could improve its communication throughout the drill, constructive criticism of which Tschiegg said was valuable input.

“There weren’t many problems,” Tschiegg said. “There were a couple of recommendations from the evaluators that I thought I’d go over.”

The first was a notification of response and support agencies, where the evaluator noted the second squad wasn’t notified. The second was objective five, a resource management objective in which the evaluator said there could have been a second scribe to assist with tracking resources.

Another evaluator focused on communications, which focused on a booster communicator for Pomerene Hospital.

According to Jason Troyer, Holmes EMA director, that has already been addressed, and Pomerene now has the capabilities of receiving paging and MARKS communication briefs on all five fire department frequencies.

Another issue was in population protective actions, where the evaluator was looking for proper PPE for the Hazmat team. Tschiegg said that one wasn’t a concern because they didn’t want the team wearing full gear for the training exercise.

The final suggestion focused on medical facility, where the evaluator felt they could step up communications from incident command.

All of the concerns were minor, and Tschiegg said they can easily be addressed.

“It’s good feedback, what we want to hear during the exercise,” Tschiegg said. “Any way we can improve our effort is a positive.”

The next LEPC exercise will be a functional one in 2025. For that exercise the committee must meet at least four objectives, and a design team will be created to prepare for that effort. Some of the key objectives for that will include Emergency Operations Center, Emergency Public Information and Shelter Management.

Troyer said because the committee has done exercises in Winesburg and Holmes Fire District #1, it will turn its attention to setting up the functional exercise in Western Holmes County.

“We’d like to get around the entire county, so that will be our recommendation,” Troyer said.

Both directors said the evaluators said the exercise was well crafted and supported and the evaluation team was impressed.

“It sounds like it was a very successful exercise,” commissioner Dave Hall said. “These are just things that in their eyes we could improve on.”

“You want this feedback,” Troyer said. “That’s the way we improve ourselves. I thought all of our participants communicated very well together, which is critically important, and we were able to do that seamlessly with the new MARKS system being used across the board.”

LEPC committee chair Sarah Burkholder said the participants were all enthusiastic, especially in the hot wash arena, where they got great feedback.

Hall said he saw great communication and respect throughout the process, both being something Holmes County does well.

Now as long as the LEPC gets its quorum meeting in and the resolution passed to the state by mid-October, the county will be right on track to receive the necessary work to move forward with its Response and Preparedness requirements.