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.

Monday January 10, 2011

A busy and productive night at Sharon Civil Defense garage. The following projects were worked on during the night:

New heavy jumper cables for testing equipment were made up using alligator clips that were on hand. They will be used for testing 12 volt equipment like are new lighting tripod. Pictures of the tripod lighting stand will be available next week.

A small dent in the hood of our bucket truck needed to be fixed. The preliminary work started tonight.

Equipment was loaded back onto the Utility Truck to complete the generator transfer project. This small, lightweight 3000 watt portable generator and homemade cart, were put back onto the truck. This generator has the ability to do both 120 volt power and also 240 volt power.

The last fabrication was completed on the utility truck, a flexible exhaust for the generator. We found it difficult to find the small pipe that fit the generator. We wanted to move the exhaust away from the truck, so we purchased flexible tubing and then was TIG welded and installed.

Most of our pre loaded messages for the LED signs were imported into our laptop and are now ready to be loaded into all of our signs. This will make the signs easier to use for multiple town events and emergencies. Click on the video below to see one of our led signs in action.

AM 1630 Strobe Box

To gain drivers attention to the 1630 AM signs around town, we have built portable battery operated strobe boxes that will attach underneath the signs. These boxes can be deployed when residents need to turn their vehicle radio to 1630 AM.

See the video below:

Monday January 3, 2011

Happy New Year from the Sharon Civil Defense/Emergency Management Department! This will be an update from the last 2 weeks of meetings.

Work is progressing on the generator installation on the Bucket truck. The generator has been permanently mounted, exhaust ports cut in the floor of the truck, fuel lines run from the truck diesel tank supplying fuel to the generator, and the battery has been installed. The generator was tested and ran. There is still much work to be done to get it fully operational with the correct safeguards and outlets. See the picture below of how we are making a template for mounting outlets in the truck's service body.

A switching panel was added to the generator on the Utility truck so that the generator will not start under a load. The switch needs to be pressed so that power will go to the outlets around the truck. Also a welding plug was added to the truck for added capabilities.

With the staff room renovation completed, work has continued on other outstanding projects including the radio console and the AM 1630 strobe boxes. The boxes were completed and now left on the project is to attach mounting bolts to the signs around town.

We have another ongoing project, making our LED scrolling signs easier to deploy and operate. The signs are controlled through a remote control similar to a tv remote. The signs are starting to be preloaded with "canned" messages that could be used in an instant. The programming of the signs is done through a laptop computer.

Our AM 1630 radio station was retrofitted with a new call in phone number and the new instructions for all town departments to use the radio station were made up and distributed.

Also this was the first monday of the month, so Sharon CD participated in the monthly ARES radio drill with all Sector 2D RACES stations, copying messages from MEMA.