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The Public Safety Committee of the Columbia County Supervisors forwarded a resolution to the full Board tonight which recommends that the County contract with Code Red, a commercial vendor of reverse 911 services. A link to how one Texas county has implemented Code Red can be found here.

The recommendation was based upon a review by Lieutenant County Sheriff Thomas (Tom) Lanphear, and will be voted upon at a special meeting on Monday at 6:30 called by Board Chair Pat Grattan. The Safety committee session tonight was rescheduled from its usual monthly time because of last Thursday’s community meeting at the West Ghent Fire House to discuss the recent inferno at TCI of NY, a PCB waste processor.

This time, nowhere near the 300 people who turned out for last week’s meeting in Ghent were present at 401 State Street in Hudson—though not for a lack of public interest, but for a lack of public awareness. (Interestingly, three Albany network TV stations evidently were well aware of it, arriving early and eagerly interviewing attendees about their impressions.)

The committee is chaired by Supervisor Roy Brown, and includes Board members McDonald, Bassin, Hughes, Murrell, Nayer and Porreca. Several other County supervisors were in attendance, including Ellen Thurston and Sarah Sterling from Hudson, and Claverack’s Robin Andrews—the lone County supervisor to attend last Thursday’s packed meeting in Ghent.

Considering what transpired later, the meeting started on a peculiar note, with Commitee Chair Brown stating that “We’re not having any sort of a TCI review [or] update tonight.” In spite of this statement, neither the audience nor the TV crews budged, and their patience was soon rewarded with a lengthy discussion of the TCI fire and what to do about any future emergencies of this scale.

Fire coordinator Don Howe began by noting that there had been roughly a dozen official meetings about the TCI fire.

Supervisor William (Billy) Hughes of Hudson chimed in with several relatively innocuous questions about the TCI fire, including “who we had knocking on doors” to alert residents while a separate crime investigation was in progress.

County Sheriff Harrison noted that State Police were assigned to help alert close neighbors of the fire, but that “the decision was made to have some people stay in their houses” given that a search for five home invaders was ongoing nearby.

A County Emergency Management official indicated that the County would be conducting an internal “critique” for the Committee on how manpower was assigned during these concurrent emergencies, and recommending commendations for several people “who are not county employees but are affiliated with other agencies.”

Hughes attempted to quiz County officials about why Massachusetts conducted dioxin testing, but New York State did not, asking “How come we didn't?”

Harrison responded that on “the night of the fire, before I even left my house, I called the State because I knew they were part of our LEPC [emergency planning protocols]. I knew that the materials inside would warrant a State response. I requested that the State Office of Emergency Management respond… We had the Regional Director and the Director for the whole state on the scene within an hour. I requested Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health assistance, as well as the County DOH. In a nutshell, we really asked the experts on what we should be sampling for, how it should be done, and the frequency we should be sampling.” But Harrison also conceded to Hughes that “I know that is not really what you‘re looking for.”

Seeking clarification, Hughes asked if the decision to not sample for dioxin was the State’s call. Harrison indicated that “We requested the PCB sampling, and additional testing for PCBs, and for dioxin. They took that back and decided they didn't need to do it.” But he added that “Based on last week's meeting” (in West Ghent) “I believe the State is reevaluating that decision.”

Hughes then asked “what should our agriculture do as a result” of the fire, referring to “the crops and things... Should those things be disposed of?” Hughes said he had heard “contradictory” stories that pollutants “can be washed off and eaten,” or not. William (Bill) Black of the County Emergency Managemnt office referred Hughes to information “put out in writing” and “on the [State] DOH website on what to do,” adding that while “I don’t have that information at my fingertips, we have to rely on what Ag & Markets has provided.”

Greenport Supervisor John Porreca sought to widen the conversation by urging that “We need to look at all of Columbia County” in terms of what various businesses have on site in terms of hazardous materials. Porreca argued that such inventories should be computerized, “so that they are at our fingertips whenever [firefighters] go to a site.”

Black agreed, but added that while “companies have to report by Federal law, there are no teeth in the law. A facility could be right here in Hudson—I could see the propane tanks, the anhydrous ammonia, and tell them they have to report it—but there's nothing I can do to make them.” Black cited the Federal Right to Know Law requiring companies which store or handle hazardous materials to report what they have, if they “have reportable quantities” but again noted that “I can't enforce it, the Sherriff can't enforce it, the State Police can't enforce it... It's an old law that needs to be updated.” Porreca added that employees deserve to have access to such information as well.

Talk then turned to the availabilty of foam trucks, with Hughes speculating that companies which may need require large amounts of foam to control a fire at their facilities ought to foot the bill for that capability. Black jumped in to say that in the TCI fire, “We never ran out of foam. We had enough foam. The County has 300-gallons of foam storage, which when mixed at 3%, that's 29,000 gallons.” Black said that “in addition to what Stratton Air Force Base brought” to the TCI scene, “That was able to put out what we needed to.” But the availability of foam proved to be something of a non-issue, Black indicated, because “At the height of the fire, it wasn't feasible [to] get close enough to use it.”

Brown then turned the conversation to what he termed “some misinformation out there that they [the Emergency Management folks] blew it... They didn't blow it,” Brown argued, saying that if anything blame for the way the TCI inferno was handled should fall on political leaders. “We Supervisors didn't provide them with the tools to do their job. They did what they could, within their powers. Had we given them the tools, nobody would have pointed the fingers at them.”

Several supervisors chimed in at this point to say that the first responders should be thanked, and the County Board should be the ones saying “we blew it.” Hughes said: “I think everybody on the board should say it.”

The discussion now turned to the details of how Columbia County should institute a reverse 911 or other emergency notification service to cover future emergences. Lieutenant Lamphear then handled the bulk of the remaining questions, having spent a great deal of the past 20 days researching the County’s options along with his colleague Rob Lopez. A certain amount of media embarrassment has resulted from the fact that Rensselaer and Berkshire County managed to notify thousands of downwind neighbors of the need to stay inside, close windows, and turn off air conditioners, but Columbia County did not, and the Committee seemed anxious to get the County up to speed.

Much of the remaining discussion revolved around the pros and cons of NYAlert.com, a free online emergency system maintained by the State, versus various commercial alternatives. Lanphear noted several times that NYAlert’s protocols “can be cumbersome,” especially in terms of data entry, as well as confusing to less technically-oriented users.

Stockport Supervisor Matt Murrell urged that any system be “user friendly,” and embrace people “without computers or cell phones.” Murrell said that “ I can't tell you how many people in my town have said they don't have a computer, they don't watch TV, they don't read the papers, or they don't listen to the radio.”

Concerning fees and staff time, another Supervisor (who was both hard to identify and to hear, since half the Committee had its back to the audience and none of the available microphones were being employed) argued that “Something as important as this should not be guided by cost.” Andrews quizzed Lanphear about mapping options to ensure that correct addresses be on file in a County where ZIP codes often don’t correspond town names, and he said that Code Red can handle that task better than NYAlerts.

Lanphear ultimately recommended that the Supervisors go with a commercial service called Code Red, as it is less complicated to set up, has 24/7/365 staffing, offers immediate feedback and action, and already has 29,000 landline phone numbers of Columbia County residents in its database. Residents who want to offer their cell phones, VOIP lines, or alternative numbers also would be able to do so with Code Red. He also noted that since it is a no-cost, State-run service, the County could continue also to work with NYAlerts as a secondary, back-up notification system while using Code Red as its primary means of getting the word out about major emergencies. Lanphear noted that in the case of Hurricane Irene, Code Red was able to get a system up for White Plains “in an hour.” He advised that the system should be used sparingly, saying that “we don't want the public to be inundated with calls. This would be for states of emergency and major fires... We're not going to be sending out that there's a house fire, except maybe in that small area.”

Some discussion occurred about outreach to State legislators and Federal representatives about grant opportunities and other funding to defray the cost, but it was again affirmed that cost should not be an object in this case.

Supervisor Brown then called for a motion to recommend that the full Board authorize Columbia County 911 “to purchase and implement a system for emergency notifications,” and to “establish policies and procedures” based on the research and recommendations of Lanphear and Black. The motion carried unanimously, considering “the magnitude of this,” with the recommendation to be voted on per Grattan’s suggestion at a full, special Board next Monday. The hope was expressed that this could be moved forward in time to promote the availability of a new reverse 911 service at the upcoming Columbia County Fair.

The meeting then adjourned, with the Albany TV crews descending en masse to interview audience members—whose presence was not acknowledged during the meeting, and who were not invited to speak or ask questions. Reports by YNN, WTEN (10) and WNYT (13) are here, here and here.