1/29/2021 Meeting Minutes

Scioto County Emergency Planning Committee

MEETING NOTICE

Friday, January 29, 2021

12:00 Noon

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

AGENDA

I. Approval of December Meeting Minutes as Distributed

II. Financial Report

III. Items of Business:

a. COVID19 Update

b. Vaccination Program

c. LEPC Chemical Emergency Preparedness Plan

d. 2021 LEPC Grant & Contract

e. 2021 Exercise

IV. Anything from the floor?

V. Adjournment

*Next meeting will be March 26, 2021 at 12-Noon.

Scioto County Emergency Planning Committee

Meeting Minutes - January 29, 2021

Members Present:

*Due to Meeting Size Restrictions- the meeting was held virtually via Zoom.

I. The minutes from the previous (December 4, 2020) meeting were not available due to a technical problem. George Moore made motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes. The motion was seconded by Joe Vandeusen and all approved.

II. Director Mullins present the Financial Report for January 2021:

Frontier DSL: $130.45 (Dec 2020); $174.56 (Jan 2021 plus Service Upgrade Charge) Total: $305.01.

MARCS Radio: Quarterly Fee - $210.00.

Canon Solutions: Quarterly Maintenance Fee - $192.83.

Generator Systems: (Service Call) Replace broken throttle cable - $495.36.

ASCEND Rehab: (Monthly Rent) - $500.00.

Director Mullins asked if there was any questions or discussion concerning the report hearing none, Sandy Mers made a motion to accept the report. The motion was seconded by George Moore and all approved.

III. Items of Business:

a. Director Mullins told the group that EMA continues to support our healthcare partners and first responders in the local response with public information, personal protection equipment, and filling mission requests.

Director Mullins told the group that the EOC continues to be in partial activation since November 23^rd, 2020 with contact tracers from the county health department working out of the EOC seven (7) days a week.

Director Mullins said that the work has recently slowed down for the contact tracers. He added that he hopes the trend continues.

Director Mullins also added that work continues to progress on the County Health Department’s new office in the basement of the Courthouse Annex.

Director Mullins said that the new office will have a backup generator, exam rooms where vaccinations and other things can take place and be a big improvement over the current health department offices.

Director Mullins also added that the vaccine clinics are currently being held in the main lobby of the courthouse. He said that the health department had been using the probation department offices in the basement, however they moved the clinic upstairs to the lobby of the courthouse to improve accessibility to the elderly.

b. Director Mullins explain to the group that EMA, with our healthcare partners, activated a Joint Information Center (JIC) on December 18, 2020 to coordinate public information as the county’s vaccine program began on December 21^st, 2020. He added that Cathy Mullins had came on board to act as Public Information Officer for both health departments and to head up the JIC. He said that Cathy is doing a good job getting information out about the vaccine program in Scioto County. He added that it had been a while since a JIC had been setup, so it has been a good learning experience for EMA and our partners.

Director Mullins added even though our county has received much less vaccine doses than expected, our healthcare partners have done an excellent job getting the vaccine program underway. Our county continues to follow CDC and state guidelines for conducting the vaccine program. He told the group that plans are underway for a Mass Vaccination event to be held at Shawnee State University. The biggest obstacle to the success of the program is the lack of adequate supply of vaccine.

c. Director Mullins told the group that the Scioto County LEPC Chemical Emergency Preparedness Plan update was reviewed by the SERC Plan Review Team and was recommended that the SERC concur with the plan. The plan was approved at the December SERC meeting. He added that updating the plan was a good learning experience for him since it was the first time, he had ever updated the plan. At that point Director Mullins asked the group if they had any questions on what he had talked about so far. There were no questions, so he continued.

d. Director Mullins said that the 2021 LEPC grant application has been submitted. He asked the group to please find a copy of Contract Services invoice, that should have been emailed to everyone, to the LEPC from EMA in the amount of $10,000.00. Director Mullins asked the group if there any questions about the grant or invoice. There were no questions, so he asked for a motion to accept the invoice and to pay it, pending the approval of the grant and receipt of funds. Joe Vandeusen made a motion to accept the invoice and paid it when funds were made available from the grant. The motion received a second from Justin Clark. All approved.

e. Director Mullins told the group that the uncertainly of the pandemic was still affecting plans and that at this time we are not able to set the date for our annual exercise. He added that hopefully he would be able to update the group by the next meeting. He added he was still waiting on guidance from Ohio EMA on how to proceed with exercises this year.

IV. Anything from the Floor: At that point Director Mullins asked if anyone had any questions about the items he had covered. There were no questions. He then asked Jane Jarrells from the Salvation Army to update the group on their warming station. Ms. Jarrells told the group that they had one person take advantage of the warming station the night before (Thursday) and that the warming station would be open again that night (Friday) at 8:30 p.m. Ms. Jarrells asked the group to pass the word by sharing their Facebook post. Director Mullins added that he had heard an interview that Bill Shope had done with Major Simco on Community Corner on WNXT Radio concerning the warming station and it had been on the news. Director Mullins said he hoped that some people would be able to take advantage of the service that need it. Director Mullins then asked Justin Clark to update the group on how things were going with the vaccination program at SOMC. Mr. Clark told the group that comparing the cooperation of other regional hospitals that he is on state calls with their partners and with the level of cooperation here in Scioto County is much different than what his priers are experiencing. He said the level cooperation in Scioto County is a testament to the leadership of the health department and their community partners. Mr. Clark told the group that as of this morning (1/29/2021) SOMC had given 5,971 doses of the vaccine. Mr. Clark explained that this total includes people from other counties since SOMC is a regional hospital and include persons that live outside of the county. Mr. Clark added that 1,806 people have received second doses. Mr. Clark also added that they now have 1,806 persons in their market that have been fully vaccinated plus what the city and county health departments have done also. Mr. Clark also said that he would like to think that there was a collation between the number of people vaccinated and the current Covid numbers that have been going down. Mr. Clark added that 11 was an exciting number the other day. He also said another exciting number is the number that SOMC publishes weekly to their Facebook page of the 7-day average of the total number of patients hospitalization with Covid and he said that number is in the single digits for the first time in a few months. Mr. Clark added that the total 7-day rolling average is about 8 and half patients hospitalized with Covid. He added that all signs are indicating for the opportunity for us to catch our breath, but we cannot let up on the commitment that the communities and the regions has made to beat back this virus. Mr. Clark added that SOMC appreciates all the help it has been getting from its partners and added that we are not out of the woods yet, but we are grateful to be part of the team. Mr. Mullins thanked Mr. Clark for his update and then asked Sandy Mers about efforts to get schools reopened by March. Ms. Mers said that the Governor had charged the ESC’s with organizing the vaccination for employees of the local schools. Ms. Mers said the Governor meet with the ESC’s online following his press conference earlier in the day and told them that he had announced to the public that they (ESC’s) were going to do this and so they were. The state sent them a list of schools including some private and parochial schools that they were not even aware of and a list of partners. Ms. Mers said that there was a misunderstanding that they (the ESC’s) had chose the partners for the schools. She said that the ESC did not chose partners for anyone, they were approved at ODH and sent to them. The ESC’s had to just verify them. Ms. Mers added that she could not say enough about the Portsmouth City and Scioto County Health Departments, she said they both are wonderful. She added they continue to work with them with the goal to alleviate their congestion so they can continue to vaccinate the community while we get our school employees vaccinated. Ms. Mers added that they had not received their list yet, so they did not know where they were with the school rollout. She added they were supposed to receive the list today (1/29/21). Ms. Mers added that they are ready to get all the employees vaccinated when they can.

Director Mullins then asked Molly Davis to update the group on the vaccination efforts of both the Portsmouth City and Scioto County Health Departments. Ms. Davis told the group that during the entire week the health department had been vaccinating the elderly, at drive throughs, and they also had given second doses at some of the senior centers and senior housing. She told the group that they had done 175 vaccinations yesterday (1/28/2021) for Portsmouth City Schools. She added that their nurses were going out to the schools to vaccinate instead doing the drive through style clinics were the schools come to them. Ms. Davis told the group that is where they were at this point. Director Mullins added what a fantastic job the health departments were doing, and he was so impressed how well the health departments were getting the job done under adverse circumstances.

Director Mullins then asked Roy Grimmett to update the group on how things were going at the Red Cross. Mr. Grimmett told the group that the Red Cross had been very active in the county in both their blue sky and grey sky as they like to refer to it. Mr. Grimmett said on the preparedness side that they had completed their 2020-2021 first of the year inventory of their office on Chillicothe Street. He added that they had also completed the inventory of all three of their shelter trailers that are housed in New Boston. He added that if in the event they needed to do any sheltering that because of Covid they would still be using non-congregate housing, but that it never hurts to have a count of all your assets in an area. He added that as anyone knows that has been involved in inventory you are very happy when its over. Mr. Grimmett told the group on the response side or grey sky side that since our last meeting they unfortunately had 10 family fires. He added that the Red Cross had been able to provide $5,112.00 in direct client assistance to those individuals. He told the group that unfortunately they had a fire on Christmas Eve. He added those fires are always very bad and he said that just this past Wednesday they had another fire in the middle of the night where a family was displaced. Mr. Grimmett said that they were able to use one of their grey sky techniques to house the family through a contract with the Super 8 on US 23. He said they were able to put the clients up there for two nights. He added that they were able to deliver a client assistance card (a debit card) the next day to provide additional support for the family. Mr. Grimmett add that they had been active in the area and they are standing ready to in case something large comes around. He added that they continue to be able to take care of the day-to-day activities that Red Cross would be responsible for.

Director Mullins thanked Mr. Grimmett for his update and that they appreciate the Red Cross being a community partner.

Director Mullins then asked Joe Vandeusen to update the group on activities to organize a Mass Vaccination Clinic at Shawnee State. Mr. Vandeusen told the group that SSU had completed a mockup exercise and that he had participated as one of the patients and he drove through,

and everything seemed to work well. He added that like everyone else they are waiting on vaccine. Mr. Vandeusen told the group that SSU has an open invitation for the students and staff for testing and the University is doing a lot of testing. He added that they are getting ready to buy several thousand more Binx test kits and that they have a full-blown health team working full time, seven days a week on Covid. He added the health team was doing a good job. Director Mullins said he hoped that we will receive enough vaccine to open the Mass Vaccination clinic soon. He added that the health departments and a lot of different people have been partnering with SSU to get the event prepared.

Director Mullins thanked Mr. Vandeusen for his update and then asked Lieutenant Dunlap of SOCF to update the group on the situation at the prison. LT. Dunlap told the group that the prison was back to normal scheduling and that they had been on 12 hour shifts and that staffing is great again. He added that at this time they did not have any positive inmate Covid cases. The LT. told the group that they had been starting vaccinations. He ended his update by saying they have given out about twenty or thirty vaccinations so far. Director Mullins said that he had been watching the SOCF numbers and they seem to be coming down. He said that it had been a little touch and go there for a little bit but that they are doing a great job. LT. Dunlap added that they had help from the National Guard for a little bit. He told the group that most of the guard had mostly pulled out now and that he thought they might have 5 guard members left and they are just checking temperatures. Director Mullins thanked the Lieutenant for his update.

Director Mullins then asked if anyone else had anything to add before they ended the meeting. Ms. Davis added that she had received an update from Chris (Smith) and the Portsmouth Health Dept. had given 1,593 first doses and they had fully vaccinated 481 people. Ms. Davis said that she also wanted to mention that as far as SSU goes we did drill a mass vaccination pod this past week and it went well, there were only a few hitches in the plan which we think we got solved. Ms. Davis added that on her state call that number of vaccine doses that the state was going to receive has gone up about 1,000 doses a week, so that is good. Ms. Davis added that it is steadily increasing but she hoped to see that get higher and higher each time. Director Mullins asked Ms. Davis about the Governor saying that there were leftover doses from the nursing homes that were going to be pushed into the mainstream. Ms. Davis told the group that what they are doing with the leftover doses from the nursing homes is that they are dispersing it to CVS Pharmacies to give to the elderly population. Director Mullins thank Ms. Davis for her update and then asked if anyone else had any updates for the group. Former Director Carver apologized for being late but said that she wanted to jump on and make sure that we are focusing on the annual exercise and she said she was not sure if we had gotten any guidance as far as with Covid restrictions if we will be able to do the full scale where we will have up close contact for patient treatment, triage pretend, and mock shelter opening pretend. Director Mullins said that the state was still wrestling with this. He added that he thought some sort of legislation must be passed due to the pandemic. Director Mullins added that the state EMA had not updated us on what we will be able to do and when we will be able to do it. He added that yes, that is important, and we must have that done this year. Director Mullins added that as soon as he finds out more from the state, he would let everyone know because we need to start planning if we are going to be able to do a hands-on type of exercise. Former Director Carver told Director Mullins to keep the group posted. Director Mullins thanked former Director Carver and then asked the group if anyone else had anything for the good of the order. Hearing nothing else Director Mullins asked for a motion to adjourn. Joe Vandeusen so moved, and Jim Delabar seconded the motion. With that the meeting was concluded.

THE NEXT MEETING OF THE SCIOTO LEPC WILL BE MARCH 26, 2021 AT NOON.