The meeting began at 11:5 a.m. in the DeKalb County Gathertorium.  Molly O’Toole, the planning consultant welcomed everyone. 28 people were present.

1.      Introductions:    Each person introduced him or herself. Everyone was asked to sign in. Some communities had more than one person present. The municipalities, agencies and organizations that signed in were:

2.  Comments from Audience/Visitors:  No comments were made.

3.  Update on Planning Steps 1 through 6:  Molly reviewed the chapters of the Plan that have been drafted and provided to the Committee.  Public information efforts, through the County’s web site continue, and agency coordination is continuing.  Molly reminded everyone to feel free to include information about the Plan development on community web sites or in the newspaper. 

4.  Plan Chapters:  The Committee was given copies of draft Chapter 9 (Emergency Services) and draft Chapter 10 (Public Information) for review. Molly thanked Traci Lemay of the City of DeKalb for her work on drafting Chapter 7.

5.  Planning Step 7 – Hazard Mitigation Measures: 

a. Review of Mitigation Conclusions and Recommendations:  The May meeting of the Committee focused on the development of mitigation conclusions and recommendations for preventive measures (Chapter 5) and natural resource protection measures (Chapter 8).  Because of the time needed to address emergency services and public information activities, Molly skipped a summary of outcome of May’s meeting.  She will come back to this in September. 

b and c.  Mitigation Activity Overview and Development of Conclusions and Recommendations:  Today’s meeting is third of three meetings on mitigation activities – and focuses on emergency services and public information.

Emergency Services:   Molly gave a slide-show overview of emergency services, which consists of the cycle of hazard warning, emergency response, critical facility protection, health and safety maintenance (or recovery), and post-disaster mitigation.  The Committee worked though an emergency services prioritization worksheet in order to rate/rank the importance of threat recognition, warning, response and recovery, and to identify county/communities needs in those areas.  Conclusion and recommendation were already included in draft Chapter 9, and those were discussed by the Committee.  Molly will revised the conclusions and recommendations based on comments made by the Committee.

Natural Resource Protection:  Molly gave another slide-show which provided an overview of public information for the purpose of hazard mitigation.  Public information is applicable as a mitigation strategy for all natural and manmade hazards.  Molly also discussed the importance and usefulness of a “public information strategy” that would provide common materials for use throughout the entire County.

The Committee was given a list of public information topics and asked to select their top ten choices.  Next the Committee was given a list of way to deliver the public information message and asked to select their top five choices.  The worksheets will be tallied and used to develop the conclusions and recommendations for Chapter 10, and they will form the basis of a public information strategy. 

Draft conclusions and recommendations for these chapters will be given to the Committee at the September meeting.

7.  Assignments for next meeting:  The following activities are requested of Committee members by September 11, 2007:

–        All:  Review draft Chapters 9 and 10.

–        All:  Publicize the Committee’s activities locally and ask for input

10.  Next meeting:  September 11, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at the DeKalb County Gathertorium.  The meeting will focus on emergency services and public information.

11.  Adjourn:  The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.