ORDER-2022-61 : Authorization to accept a grant in the amount of $6,500 from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency -MEMA (Item #9579)

Transcript (~11 min @ 3:06)

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▶ 3:02 Jen Grigoraitis: administration so given that i will move by unanimous consent to close public comment Seeing no objection, I just wish to note for the record that we have been joined by councillors Eccles and Stewart. We have three items on our agenda tonight. The first is Order 2022-61, Authorization to Accept a Grant in the Amount of $6,500 from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, aka MEMA, item number 9579. And I believe we will be bringing in mr albert to speak to this i will entertain a motion to suspend the rules that we can hear

▶ 3:45 Robb Stewart: from mr albert chair i'll make a motion to suspend the rules second we have a motion to suspend the

▶ 3:49 Jen Grigoraitis: rules made by councillor stewart seconded by president sanella adam clerk can you please

▶ 4:06 Speaker 1: call the ball vice chair migliorelli councillor mcmaster councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes.

▶ 4:24 Speaker 1: Councilor Bremski? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. Chair Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. 11 yes,

▶ 4:28 Jen Grigoraitis: and the motion carries. The rules are now suspended so that Mr. Alpert can come before us.

▶ 4:39 Jen Grigoraitis: Just while we wait for him to come on screen, if Councilors have questions, if you can please raise your hands so that i can make a list good evening mr albert how are you good evening i'm fine

▶ 4:51 Speaker 4: council members thank you very much for this uh opportunity and it's a pleasure to be here uh the emergency management planning grant empg is a annual grant that's offered from fema to states and municipalities and tribal units to support the preparedness of our region and our area and the funds generally go to preparedness for equipment and training for all hazard types of event. It's nothing new to the community. This is the third such one that we're receiving since I've been on board. And what we have been doing, I don't know if anybody has noticed that we've started some work in the what used to be the EOC on mezzanine floor and one of the line items on the advertisement for the position that i accepted

▶ 5:50 Speaker 4: was to build out an emergency operating center so the monies that we've used from the previous grants plus this one has gone a long way to facilitate that process and the memorandum that that I gave to the mayor that I believe he forwarded on explains the latest equipment that we're getting with this. So I'll be happy to answer any questions that anybody has.

▶ 6:23 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Mr. Albert. Do any counselors have questions? Counselor Jamaleddine.

▶ 6:31 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Thank you for being with us tonight. I wanted to ask you just for the sake of communities and folks who are listening to us right now, If you can explain to us what, you know, the plan and how did you use that?

▶ 6:53 Maya Jamaleddine: Oh, I'm sorry. Council. What plan are you talking about? So you said you part of the job description is to use that amount of money for, uh, like preparedness for, um, emergency. Um, and and you, you said that the mayor forwarded some information for us. So, if you can share it with the public.

▶ 7:19 Speaker 4: Oh, certainly certainly, uh, the Melrose, the city of Melrose had an emergency operating center slash training center on the mezzanine floor that was in full operation up until 2017. When then director and late director at Kelly passed away, the, uh, position of emergency management director was then assumed by the fire department and in doing so the, uh, EOC was was not maintained. And most of the equipment just went to fire department, police department and mayor Inferno, who was the mayor at the time wanted to once again, And put together an emergency operating center, and just for everybody's benefit and for those at home that are watching and listening to this, an emergency operating center is a location when during an emergency, such as. The storm that we just had, it's where all the department heads. Uh, in the mayor's office would gather so everybody is in 1 location and as requests come in from residents. or there are issues that take place that the fire department, police department, EMS needs assistance. Everything is funneled through the EOC rather than going back to the respective fire dispatchers and police dispatchers who are tied up with active emergency calls. So during a situation such as this past snowstorm, we were very fortunate that we did not have the trees down, the wires down that other parts of the state had. Had that taken place, as calls were received in the 911 center for such incidents, they would then be sent over to the EOC and the appropriate dispatch of DPW, fire, police, notification to the utilities would take place. Uh, we have a constant communication with the state emergency operating center. My, my computer was on straight for 2 days in contact with the state and the state offers. A, a web based application. That's not generic just to Massachusetts, but it's called the, uh, web. And this is how we communicate with the state, whether we're asking for requests or any, uh, information we want to pass along, uh, at any time, any of the councils would ever like to come up and have a demonstration on this. It's a great tool and I would like to share anything in emergency management with any council or anybody that would like to know what it is that we do in emergency management because it's not. As noticeable as the fire department and the police department on a day to day basis. But if you notice. When an event occurs, such as a blizzard or a storm, you're constantly hearing reports from NEMA or the governor who was talking about NEMA and NEMA is the coordinating agency for the state. So, this equipment is going to allow us to to build out an EOC in the training room. The training room has already been used by myself. I did some web EOC training where two members of NEMA came down and our city clerk joined in on it, as well as the fire department, the health director. And also the fire department has done a four-day hazardous materials training course. And once we get this fully up and running, it'll be available for any one of our departments that have to do any type of training. So again, I would encourage anybody to stop by, come in and see what we're doing. I think it's great.

▶ 11:15 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Do we know when this will be up and running?

▶ 11:19 Speaker 4: We're in the final stages, COVID-19 and the restrictions by COVID-19 really brought us back a lot because the vendors just aren't out there to produce the products. IT department is doing a wonderful job assisting me with their section of it, but it's a little slow again because of COVID. I'm hoping that sometime within the next two months that we will be operational and the EOC component will also have an area where fire and police dispatches will do their training and also during the activation of the EOC they will be able to communicate directly with not only their departments but our partner agencies and in the event that something happened in either the police station or the fire station uh they will then have a location where they can temporarily operate from melrose is one of many communities in the commonwealth that doesn't have an immediate backup should they have to evacuate the station because of a power failure or an odor of gas or even a fire in the building so this will act as a backup as well for fire police dispatch

▶ 12:54 Speaker 5: Thank you. You're welcome.

▶ 12:56 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Councillor Jamaleddine. Do any other councillors have questions? I didn't see any hands.

▶ 13:02 Speaker 5: Hey, what is the- oh, Councillor Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will

▶ 13:06 Robb Stewart: make a motion to recommend this to the full council.

▶ 13:13 Jen Grigoraitis: Second. So we have a motion to recommend for passage made by Councillor Stewart, seconded by President Cinella. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

▶ 13:24 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor McMaster.

▶ 13:29 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:29 Speaker 1: Councilor Eccles.

▶ 13:31 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:32 Speaker 1: Councilor Garipay.

▶ 13:34 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:34 Speaker 1: Councilor Jamaleddine.

▶ 13:37 Speaker 2: Yes.

▶ 13:37 Speaker 1: Councilor Stewart.

▶ 13:39 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:40 Speaker 1: Councilor Karamcheti. Yes. Councilor Obremski.

▶ 13:45 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:46 Speaker 1: President Sinella.

▶ 13:48 Speaker 6: Yes.

▶ 13:49 Speaker 1: Chair Grigoraitis? Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 13:54 Jen Grigoraitis: So that motion passes, this will be recommended to the full council. Thank you very much Mr. Alpert for being here this evening.

▶ 14:01 Speaker 4: Thank you very much, councillors. And again, I, once again, extended invitation to please send me an email. Let me know a day a time that's convenient and I will make sure that I am there to give you a little walkthrough about emergency management and give you a first hand look at the EOC training area.