MINUTES of the REGION 26 COUNCIL
January 19, 2009
Region 26 Council:
Present: Absent:
Blaine Co:Tracy BradleyGarfield Co:Nancy Polinoski
Greeley Co:Doug WredeLoup Co:Jack RuppelThomas Co: Kevin Hood, Chairman Sherman Co: Tom Bandur
Valley Co:Jack Van SlykeLaw Enforce:Dave Weeks Wheeler Co: Jack Poulsen, Vice-Chair Custer Co. Municipalities:
Range Co. Municipalities:Lisa Fecht
Blaine, Loup, Garfield, Wheeler
Doug Reiter
Tri-Co Municipalities:
Valley, Greeley, Sherman
Richard Anderson
Staff Present: Alma Beland/Director, Donna Steckel/Co-Chief Dispatcher
Visitors Present: None
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by Chairman, Kevin Hood.
Roll Call was taken with seven(7) members present.
The meeting being duly posted and a quorum present, the Chairman proclaimed this meeting to be a legal meeting and acknowledged that the Open Meeting Act was posted in the meeting room.
Motion was made by Jack Poulsen and seconded by Doug Wrede to approve the November 24, 2009 Minutes. Ayes (6) Nays (0) Abstain (0).
Motion was made by Jack VanSlyke and seconded by Tracy Bradley to approve the November 2009 Financial Statement. Ayes (6) Nays (0) Abstain (0).
Motion was made by Doug Wrede and seconded by Jack Poulsen to approve the December 2009 Financial Statement. Ayes (6) Nays (0) Abstain (0).
Alma told the Board that there was an offer made by B.J. Harris Inc. on the generator that was replaced at the dispatch center. Discussion was held on what to do with the generator. The board asked that Alma send out a notice to all County and City/Village Clerks that the generator is available and would take bids starting at $1000 prior to the next board meeting of February 23rd.
Alma reported to the Board that Charter Communications now taken over by Telephone Systems of Nebraska is considering discontinuing their contract with Region 26 to have equipment on the Sargent Tower Site. Alma explained that Charter had installed a building at the tower site and she presented pictures of the building and its condition. Discussion was held regarding keeping the building for storage purposes for grounds maintenance and then determined that is was not in good enough condition, and that it should be removed when equipment is removed.
Chairman Hood gave a report from the Assessment/Contract Committee. The Region 26 Interlocal Contracts had been reviewed at the Committee meeting this afternoon and determined there are no consistent Interlocal Agreements with the Counties and the previous signed extension in 2001 did not reflect what Contract was being extended. The Committee suggested a new contract be drawn up with a five-year term and a one year notice of withdrawal. Also, the wording in the contract will change to read that the County Boards must appoint a Commissioner/Supervisor or Representative from their County to serve on the Region 26 Board. The committee asked Alma to have something drafted to that effect for the next board meeting. The Committee recommended to the Board that the assessment for each county be changed to a $9,250 Base cost with the remainderof the county assessment amount to be split into 30% to be divided by each counties percentage of population and 70% to be divided by each counties percent of usage of the Communications Center to give a breakdown to coveroperating costs for Emergency Management/Administrative Costs and Communications Center Costs. Also, they recommended a second assessment option to be reviewed which would include all the city/village assessments excluding any CusterCounty towns that are currently assessed. They said that the Ansley and Berwyn region was discussed and felt that a meeting needed to be held with them to determine a fair assessment to their area. After discussion the Board agreed for Alma to make up the spreadsheet with the two options and a past five year comparison to send to the Board members to take to their respective counties as well as to proceed to send out the January 1st Village/City assessment with invoices being prorated to coincide with the July 1st Fiscal year of Region 26.
Criminal Justice Board report: No report
Communications Center Report: Co-Chief Dispatcher Donna Steckel handed out the breakdown of statistics for the previous two months. The November stats were 19 Generator, 33 NAWAS, 24 Siren, 254 Alarm, 90 Office, 686 Page, 2537 Radio, 2030 Phone, 274 – 911 Calls, 118 Administrative, 611 Ambulance 39 Bus, 370 Public, 14 Department of Roads, 311 Fire, 32 Guest, 20 Hospital, 3654 Law Enforcement, 775 Tests, 3 Weather. The total number of contacts to the Communications Center for the month of November was 11,894.
The December stats were 16 Generator, 39 NAWAS, 24 Siren, 239 Alarm, 59 Office, 643 Page, 2116 Radio, 2093 Phone, 281 – 911 Calls, 158 Administrative, 646 Ambulance, 35 Bus, 390 Public, 44 Department of Roads, 207 Fire, 14 Guest, 30 Hospital, 3172 Law Enforcement, 779 Tests, 35 Weather. The total number of December stats was 11,020.
Also, Donna reported on the problems with the Logging Recorder the past week that the system had locked up and required tech support from Omaha to come out.
Director’s Report:
Alma reported on the Greeley tower that no work has been able to progress due to weather. She stated that the grant for this project ended on December 30th and she was able to work with NEMA to get the grant extended to June 30, 2010. There is still other work to be done on this grant besides the tower.
The “Christmas” Blizzard has yet to be declared as a Federal Disaster but Alma said she had turned in all costs from County Roads Departments and so far had enough over each County’s threshold for the counties of Loup, Garfield, Wheeler, Greeley and Valley to be considered for Federal Disaster relief and now waiting to hear if approved by FEMA. Garfield, Wheeler and Greeley have had FEMA representatives out for (PDA) Preliminary Damage Assessments to help in the determination.
Alma discussed the Nebraska Public Service Commission letter that was received regarding the Cellular 911 surcharges that the Service Commission now manages to finance the maintenance of the Enhanced 911 systems that were installed across the state. They are reviewing the possibility of sending the funds to the Dispatch Centers to handle their own maintenance and future upgrades to their own systems but would still manage how it could be spent and amounts that could carry over for upgrades. They were asking for comments to be sent to the Public Service Commission this week. Alma stated that she was sending comment on the fact that the eligible list of what the funds could be used for was too restricted and that since we are losing revenue from landline surcharges monthly due to the public switching solely to cellular phones that we should be allowed to use cellular phone surcharges to offset our declining revenue for operations of the 911 center.
The annual (EPW) Exercise Planning Workshop for Emergency Managers was this coming week in North Platte that Alma said she would be attending.
Alma reported on the generator being down at the Ord site as well as the power outage at Christmas damaged the Weather Station transmitter. Valley County roads was able to open the road to the pasture but both repairmen had to walk to the tower from pasture entrance to get to the tower which required a toboggan to carry in repair parts during and soon after the storm.
Alma listed the free H1N1 clinics that had been held by the Loup Basing Public Health and West Central Public Health in the Region as well as the upcoming ones in Valley County. She listed out the problems of breakdown of the Communications Center copier which was replaced with a used one as well as the DSL Internet Router failing and needing replacement of the Teletype Printer and replacement of the shut off on the Merna generator. There has been noise on the Greeley and Ord frequencies that is being monitored. She also reported that she was working with NIRMA to review Region 26 as a possible member to help lower insurance costs.
Next regular meeting date will be February 23, 2010.
Chairman Hood adjourned the meeting at 8:53 PM.