Sharon High School Sheltering Tour- Dec. 29th, 2011

After the events of the Halloween Snow Storm of 2011, it was determined that Sharon High School will be the mass sheltering location for residents. If a smaller warming center or small number of residents need shelter, the Town Hall will be used.

CD needed to know the capability of the HS emergency power for the shelter. CD members and Fire Chief Wright met with the school electrician to go over the emergency power capabilities. The group toured the building, looked at emergency panels, and went over blueprints of the building.

It was determined that all emergency panels need to be clearly marked. Also only certain classrooms have outlets available during generator power.

CD members and the school electrician made a list of items that needed to be purchased and installed to allow flexible capabilities for the shelter.

Halloween Snow Storm 2011

The Civil Defense Department was mobilized on Oct. 30, 2011 at approximately 2200 hrs by the Sharon Police Department. Members met at the EOC, were given a list of roads that were impassable do to downed trees and wires by the Sharon PD. 3 teams of members were sent out to unblock the roads so they would be passable for motorists and emergency vehicles. One member manned our EOC communications room.

The teams removed downed trees and branches from roadways with chainsaws, and the use of a snow plow. Operations lasted until about 0400 hrs.

Members were kept on standby the next 12 hours due to power outages throughout the town. A public safety emergency meeting commenced the next morning to plan for the next 12-24 hours.

It was determined that a warming center was need at the Hixon Farm Clubhouse. CD members set up hot beverages and food for citizens who needed to warm up.

Sheltering operations were then set up at the Town's Library that evening for residents. CD members set up cots and beverages/food for citizens.

Many lessons were learned from our deployment, and influenced our capital equipment requests for the coming year. Thanks to all CD members for their hard work those few days.

As always we are looking for new members to help us in everyday operations and during emergencies. Please email polimerbj@gmail.com if interested. All backgrounds are welcomed, no prior knowledge of emergency management is required.

Dir. Polimer's Sharon Patch Op/Ed

Click on the link to see Director Polimer's article in Sharon's Patch.

http://sharon.patch.com/articles/op-ed-put-mother-nature-on-holiday-shopping-list

EAS Nationwide Test, Nov. 9th 2011

This is a message reprinted from State Of Massachusetts website regarding the nationwide EAS test on Wednesday November 9th at 2pm EST.

The United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have announced the first-ever national test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will take place on Wednesday November 9th at 2:00 p.m. EST.
The EAS is a national alert and warning system established to enable the President of the United States to address the American public during emergencies. The National Weather Service, governors, and state and local officials also utilize parts of the system to issue more localized emergency alerts.

The purpose of the test is to determine the reliability of the system and its effectiveness in notifying the public of emergencies and potential dangers nationally and regionally.  Similar to the frequently conducted statewide EAS tests, the nationwide test will involve broadcast radio and television services, cable television, satellite radio and television services and wireline video service providers across all states and the territories of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

On November 9th, the public will hear a message indicating, “This is a test.” The audio message will be the same for all EAS participants, however, due to the limitations in the EAS the video test message scroll may not be the same or indicate that “This is a test.” The text at the top of the screen may indicate that an “Emergency Alert Notification has been issued.”  This notification is used to disseminate a national alert and in this case, the test.  In addition, the background image that appears on video screens during an alert may indicate that “This is a test,” but in some instances there might not be an image at all. The test is expected to last approximately 30-60 seconds.

Past Activities Sept.-Oct. 30th

Sharon CD has lacked blog entries the last few weeks, but here is an update of activities the department has done.

The EOC generator has been successfully installed in a indoor location below our garage. The move included plumbing a new gas line, electrical hookup, and a custom exhaust system. Also installed was a warning light that will turn on in our office. This light tells us when the generator fires its weekly test. We also have a light that turns on when the power to the building is on generator power.

Polimer and Traut installing the custom exhaust system.

Work continues on some ongoing projects town wide. Badging all town employees has been a goal of the LEPC and CD has taken the lead. Badging equipment is stored at the EOC, and a new workstation with computer, badging equipment and a laminator is ready.

A town wide radio reprogramming has begun. The Federal Gov't has told all public safety entities that they need to change their radios so they can add more frequencies in the bands. This requires to change all dispatch consoles, every truck, police car, fire truck and every handheld radio in the town.

This programming has been spearheaded by CD and programming of all Fire Department and Police Department has been completed. Work was done the second to last week in October. CD personnel used laptops and PCs to reprogram the radios. We used the Norfolk County Dispatch Radio Officer for help reprogramming the Fire Department radios. And CD members changed all Police Department Radios in house.

Radio being reprogrammed in 96:CD & FD shared Bucket Truck



Department of Public Works needs actual new radio to be in compliance with the order. In the next few months CD members will help install new radios in the needed DPW vehicles. Once the radios are installed, they will be reprogrammed to the correct banding.

Sharon was effected by the Nor'easter on Oct. 29th. CD members were emailed on Oct. 28th, to monitor the weather and make sure our "Go Kits" were ready. CD members were put on standby Saturday night at 10pm. The next blog posting will have details of our deployment.

Hurricane Irene

Sharon Civil Defense was ready for Hurricane Irene on August 28th, 2011, when it made landfall in western Massachusetts. CD members were briefed throughout the week with emails from HHAN system, Skywarn messages and internal emails from the CD Director.



Members met on August 27th to prepare the Emergency Operations Center for possible use the next day. The following items were done by CD members.



-Gas cans filled

-Batteries checked in flashlights, 1630AM radio station, and batteries charged on generators

-Backup generators at all radio repeater sites were checked including propane gas levels

-EOC generator was temporally connected for possible use if shore power was lost





On Sunday August 28th, members were standing by and were given their deployment status over our UHF radio repeater around 0958 hrs. Director Polimer was in direct contact with Sharon PD and DPW, and their resources became limited by the amount of calls they were receiving at that time.



CD members Vogenberg, Ferrara, Corman and M. Polimer opened the EOC at approx. 1010 hrs. They notified MEMA that Sharon EOC was operational and then received instructions from the Sharon PD to help with road blocks. Two, two member teams responded to multiple blocked roads with trees and power lines down. Vehicles used were the Utility truck and Bucket truck.



Members Traut and B. Polimer were in the EOC at approx. 11am, to man the EOC radios, and collect more road blocks in storage. Operations continued for a few more hours and the EOC was closed at approx. 1500hrs.





CD members M. Polimer, Levine, and Vogenberg were deployed at approx. 1900 hrs. to supply emergency power at an elder living facility to facilitate medical treatments to the residents. Other members were standing by if needed, but were not operational. Bucket truck was used with the on board generator to light up hall ways, stairwells and a meeting area. Residents used our small portable power boxes to power up their medical devices for their treatments. CD members secured operations around 2200 hrs.

Members were debriefed via email and meetings on August 29th and September 5th. Items discussed were how members needed to be called via phone and UHF radio for deployments. EOC must have at least one CD members manning radios and preferably another member for radios and gathering equipment. Members are also preparing a call log sheet for public safety dispatchers to accurately keep track of non emergency calls.

August 21, 2011

A few weeks of blog postings from Sharon Civil Defense. On August 4th, the department participated in a training exercise at the Town's annual Square Jam festivial. CD members utilized the Bucket Truck with on board generator to light up the square. CD members and MRC members maned the LEPC trailer, showing the capibilties of the mobile trailer for Emergency Dispensing, Shelter Management or other emergency situations. At the end of the night, CD members lite up the square for safety of the personel cleaning up after the event.

As usual, this excercise made use of our equipment, and helped gain valuable in field experience.

Work continues on retrofitting our EOC generator for its move from outside to an inside shelter.

We are currently helping the Sharon Fire Department retrofit an old police crusier to a staff vehicle. Work includes installing emergency lights, siren and radios.

The new radios that CD members have been programming for the Sharon Police Department, have now gone out for testing to some officers on the street. We will be waiting for their thoughts.

July 23rd 2011

Sharon CD had their annual staff exercise at the town's fourth of July fireworks. As usual Sharon CD members provided lighting and support to both the PD and FD for the night's activities. Members used CD vehicles, generators and lighting equipment for lighting intersections where Sharon PD detail Officers were stationed for traffic control. All of our equipment operated successfully, and no issues were reported from any of the members.

As customary, all members who participated used this exercise as a training mission. Members got hands on use of vehicles, equipment and using radios.

Other happenings in the department are: our backup generator that runs the EOC has been removed and will be relocated inside the building. The generator now is in our garage being worked on.

We have set up a new computer work station in our staff room. The station has our 11x17 printer, computer, laminator, and our badge maker. CD members have been working with our town departments to help get ID badges to all department employees.

We are also helping the PD in programming new radios for their Special Officers.

Monday June 20th, 2011

Not many blog postings the past few weeks. We will try and do our weekly updates for now on.

To recap the past few weeks: End of your budget year is approaching on July1. We have purchased items to clear our books for the year. Some of the items include: 2 computers, laminator and supplies, communication accessories, go kit items like winter gloves and rain jackets, a new refrigerator and some tools.

When making these purchases we constantly look to update our equipment and capablities, the new computers for instance replaced handed down computers from other town departments. We have used an outside vendor to do all of our laminations the last few years. With our own laminator, we have the capablility to produce maps and then make them waterproof, 24/7.

Projects around the garage are: another cell phone charging station, a computer work station in the staff rooom with a computer, laminator and a printer. Our mobile led sign trailer is still in production. We removed the EOCs old generator and will be moving our backup generator from its current position outside, to the inside location over the next few weeks.

Coming up in less than 2 weeks is our annual July 3rd drill. As usual CD members will provide safety lighting, communications, and support to the town's annual celebration.

See photos below of the generator removal process:

Monday May 9, 2011

With a few missing blog posts and some off work weeks, here is a round up of Sharon Civil Defense activities.

Work continued and finished on the cell phone charging station. A carrying handle is all it needs to be ready for service. See pictures below of the station.

Our EOC emergency generator was serviced a few weeks ago. Its annual check up included, oil and filter change, battery check, spark plug check, and air cleaner changed.

The annual town meeting was last week and CD had all of its items accepted. New windows are approved for the rest of the building, a new 50Kw generator will be purchased and a town wide steel building was also approved.

Work continues on our LED sign trailer. See photos below.

The addition of the steel building will free up existing garage space, so all CD vehicles and equipment will be stored inside. This will also allow us to have increased work space. By freeing up parking spaces in the shared lot with the Police Department, they are also happy. Details to follow.

The end of the fiscal year is fast approaching. This means CD members will be spending their remaining budget. Items on the list generated last night are, rain jackets, boots, winter gloves, tool boxes, misc. hand tools, computers etc. A final list will be produced and ordering will begin.

Monday April 4th and April 11th, 2011

Projects continue in the CD garage. Work is progressing on the LED sign board trailer and the cell phone charging station. See pictures below of the work.

Monday March 28th, 2011

This was a transition night for CD members. Projects have been completed and some projects are coming up.

The night started as usual, a weekly report from Director Polimer on the happenings in town this past week. Also discussed was new over the shoe rain boots for the members. Samples were ordered the previous week. The samples were passed around and tried on, then the members decided on the correct boots. They will be ordered in coming weeks. The boots will be added to the go kits of members.

A new project was discussed and planned out. A large scale cell phone charging station was thought about during a mobile EOC or a large scale sheltering. The project will have 120v outlets so people can charge their cell phones for communications during an emergency. The project was planned out on our white board, and construction will start next week.

Another new project that is starting is a mobile trailer for our LED signs. See the picture below of the salvaged trailer that will be fabricated into a mobile messaging trailer.

Monday March 14th, 2011

Monday night started with our usual round table discussion of the past weeks events. The group got into discussions about: our capital outlay requests, budget and a policy on pumping residents basements.

Our Plans and Training Officer, Chuck Levine has drafted a policy for Sharon Civil Defense to pump out Sharon home owner's basements. This policy was discussed at length, and was submitted to Director Polimer for the Town to approve. More details on this new service to be provided by Sharon Civil Defense coming soon!

Work finished on removal of components in the newly acquired Hoffman boxes. The items and boxes were stored in our storage container.


Wiring has been completed on the bucket truck. Each side of the cab now has a 120v and 240v plug.

Members discussed some items to purchase over the next few weeks. Personal protective equipment items are on the list. We decided to purchase some samples of rain gear, winter gloves and rain boots.

Some of these items should be in by next monday.

Monday March 7th, 2011

Work continues on the first monday of the month.

A small order of emergency feeding supplies was ordered and then put away in our feeding containers in our staff room. Items included hot cups, paper plates and some cutlery.

We used our 2 meter amateur radio to check into the monthly radio drill with other local EOCs.

A new automatic drain was finally installed in our compressor. We have had issues with the compressor the past few weeks. We tried to rebuild the one on the tank but was not successful.

A new faucet was installed the previous week on our large sink in the garage. This week the sink was bolted into the wall for safety.

All wires for body mounted electrical outlets on bucket truck were pulled into position through mounted flexible metal conduit. And a sign tube all purpose socket was installed on the passenger side of the truck. This will allow us to use multiple lights,signs, and masts on the truck.

Our 1500 watt flood light attached to the Bucket Truck. Each side of the cab will have the box tubing and a 120 volt plug and a 220 volt plug.

Monday February 28th 2011

This past week we have been working on the following projects.

Body work was completed on the bucket truck hood and fender. It is now ready for paint.

Work continued on the wiring the truck to the generator on the Bucket Truck. Outlet boxes were installed on each side of the cabs and an access panel was installed in the rear of the truck to access the electrical panel.

First aid items were purchased and continue to be restocked in our trucks, kits and garage first aid boxes.

Hoffman boxes and their components were donated by a citizen of Sharon. These boxes need to be disassembled and the components put away. The boxes are great for future CD projects. Civil Defense thanks the citizen for the generous donation.

Also work continues administratively: CD admin has been working closely with the Capital Outlay Committee on our capital requests for the next budget year, also working with the Town's IT department in making our fax machine up and running during the transition to VoIP system.

Monday February 14th 2011

Here is the recap of this past weeks work night.

Cleanup was needed after the visit of the Capital Outlay Committee on Saturday morning. The committee was very impressed with the tour of our facility and listened intently to our capital needs. The group was split off in two groups and were shown all of our equipment in our trailers and in our garage. Coffee and pastries were served and much appreciated by the members. Tours were lead by Director Polimer and Off. Levine.

The capital needs for the department for this year are: a replacement four wheel drive vehicle, this would be replacing our Utility Truck which is over 30 years old. Also a replacement of our large generator on the Squad Truck. This generator is over 50 years old and would be replaced by a larger capacity, diesel generator.

See the picture below of our breakfast set up and a mock set up of our portable sign systems. It showed the versatility of the Velcro sign overlays.

 A new project was launched, making secure straps for leaving generators or large items in public ways unattended. The straps were made using quarter inch steel wire, wire clamps and heat shrink. Purchased were keyed alike padlocks that can be used to lock up an item to a traffic sign, telephone pole, etc.

The wire was cut using our plasma torch, then the ends were finished using our TIG welder, so the wire would slip into the clamp. Then the ends were secured using heat shrink.

Two straps will be added to each vehicle. See pictures below of the production line.

Another project that is underway is helping the Health Department. They have purchased through Federal funding, a special vaccine refrigerator. It can be powered by a wall outlet, 12 volt car outlet and a separate power supply. The idea being loading up the fridge with vaccine at the Health Office, and then transporting it to the dispensing site. The Health Department would like the large fridge and its components to be put on a cart so it can be easily  moved from site to site. This will be an ongoing project in future weeks. See the picture below of the fridge.

Monday February 7th, 2011

This monday was the first official monday of the month. Monthly radio drill with Region 2D RACES network was preformed. A radio was not transmitting properly and was fixed during the drill. These monthly drills help Sharon CD maintain their equipment to top performance.

A needed reorganization of our wire storage cabinet has been needed for years. With some members off at other meetings this night, it was a good time to reorganize and throw away not needed items.

First aid kits in our LEPC trailer was inspected and expired items were ordered.

Sharon's Capital Outlay Committee is meeting this saturday with Director Polimer and Off. Levine. Talking points and the capital procedures were talked about with the CD members and the EOC was cleaned for the committee. Capital items wanted this coming year are: a replacement 50 kw generator, and a new Utility Truck.

See the picture below of the completed electric control panel for the installed diesel generator on the Bucket Truck.

Monday January 31, 2011

Another monday night, another impending storm on the horizon. Its been a long, snowy winter in Massachusetts. CD members have been constantly shoveling and plowing out our equipment, so they are ready in case of deployment.

This monday worked continued on the bucket truck generator project. Control wires were fished through the boxes and are ready to connect to the control panel. The panel was check for wiring issues, and the box was correctly wired.

First aid kits on all CD vehicles were checked and expired materials are being ordered. During all deployments, a full first aid kit is taken with CD members. Thanks to our Medical Liaison, Randy Vogenberg, he has made our safety procedures and equipment up to date.

CD members are also in process of updating our emergency contacts for all emergencies. This includes, CD members, MEMA, Red Cross, and other Town of Sharon contacts.

Director Polimer and Plans and Training Officer Levine attend the Town's Open Meeting Law review. Civil Defense Department has been compliant with the State's Law's.

Our large capacity battery was fabricated with a triple 12 volt power outlet. This battery can be used for anything that runs on 12 volts like hand held spot lights, warning beacons, cell phones, and our search light box.

A new project has been thought about during the search light box. Making a large scale cell phone charging station. A board would be made to have 20 + power outlets available during a sheltering or warming event. The board would only have enough power to charge cell phones and could be powered by any generator.

Thursday January 27th 2011

CD was called out to support the Department of Public Works in Sharon to assist in lighting their salt shed for the storm that hit last night. Electrical power was knocked out to the shed and for the safety of the DPW workers, light was needed for their snow operations all night.

It was decided to use our new Bucket Truck with its diesel generator and light on top of its bucket to serve as a portable lighting tower. The generator is not fully installed, but is running and available for the job.

Monday January 24th, 2011

Another busy and productive night at CD HQ.

Work continues on the generator project on the bucket truck. The electrical panel was installed with its custom bracket and flexible steel pipe was run from the generator to the panel.

The office has purchased a large scale color printer. The printer will print sizes up to 13 inches by 44 inches. It was installed on our computer network and is available to print large scale color maps and other items.

Our constantly growing inventory of hardware has become overflowing and not organized. The past 2 weeks trays and boxes of nuts, bolts and other hardware has been labeled and put in a more organized fashion for easy use.

Body work continued on the small dent in the bucket truck hood.

Our weekly test of our backup generator to power SCD did not run this monday night. It was extremely cold with temperatures below zero that Monday morning. It was discovered that the generator might have issues with getting enough natural gas that is shared from the building and heating system to start the generator. CD members are investigating the problem and believe that during a real power outage, gas flow will be not flowing to the heating system and the generator will get enough natural gas to start.

Monday January 17th, 2011

What a busy night at the Sharon CD garage. Many projects are in full swing and progressing nicely.

We had our weekly sit down meeting at 7pm and discussed a few items. We had a discussion about some minor action that was taken by CD during the last winter storm. All procedures were followed by CD administration and they were in close contact with all Town officials. CD members were not called for a deployment but were monitoring their radios and were ready. At the height of the storm about 800 customers were without power in Sharon, and most power was restored in a few hours.

See the pictures below and descriptions of the specific project.

All of our LED sign boards were attached together with cables and were downloaded with the preloaded messages. All signs are now ready for deployment.

A frame was fabricated to mount the electrical panel for the generator on the Bucket truck. This panel will hold the circuit breakers, starting switches, and some electrical plugs for the generator.

A handheld, 4 light, 12v box was acquired a year ago by CD. It was decided that the light should be fabricated to attach to a tripod and be able to run on a regular 12v power plug. The cord was rewired last week and then this week was taken apart and then using plywood and screws, attached to a tripod. The light will be useful in any regular vehicle with a 12v outlet, a large battery, and can be used by our portable power packs. The light can be used for search and rescue when using a generator might not be available or not when lighting is needed in a quiet environment.

A yearly inspection of our first aid kits was done last night. We have a medical cabinet with fully stocked first aid packs for deployments and events. Also first aid stations are on each truck and our LEPC trailer. The trailer has a larger kit for multiple victims or a shelter deployment.

Also worked on this week was our bucket truck hood. The hood is in the process of being repaired using automotive repair techniques using body fillers, sanding, and paint.