The meeting began at 11:15 a.m. in the DeKalb County Gathertorium.  Ray Bockman of DeKalb County welcomed everyone. 38 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 3: 

Molly gave an overview of all of the February storm activity in the region and around the country.  She highlighted Molly reviewed the revised Planning Committee meeting schedule, due to the cancellation of the February meeting.  

Planning Committee members were provided with a revised draft Chapter 1 and a draft Chapter 2.  These chapters will be e-mail to the Committee next week.  Planning Committee members should review and comment on the chapters, and especially check that information pertaining to your jurisdiction is correct.

4.  Plan Chapters:

a.  Summary of Draft Chapter 2 “Hazard Identification and Profile”:  Molly reviewed the hazard profiles presented in Chapter 2 for natural and manmade hazards identified through the March exercises of the Planning Committee.  The result of the profile compare well to the rating provided in the Illinois Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan of 2004.   

b.  Summary of Draft Chapter 3 “Hazard Vulnerability Assessment”:  Draft Chapter 3 was not provided to the Committee.  Molly is waiting on data from FEMA and other agencies to determine the County’s vulnerabilities to prioritized hazards from Chapter 2.  She hopes to have the Chapter drafted for the April meeting.

5.  Review of “Assess the Hazard” Exercise:  The Planning Committee undertook the exercise to examine which hazards to focus on at the March 2007 meeting.  Molly evaluated the results and “weighted” the scoring per FEMA planning recommendations.  Regardless of the weighting the results were similar.  Hazards were grouped into the following priority categories.  The Planning Committee concurred (no concerns expressed) with the prioritization.

            Priority Natural Hazards:                       Priority Manmade Hazards:

6.  Planning Step 6 – Goal Setting:  The Committee, again working in five workgroups, worked through three exercises to aid in the development of Chapter 4 goals and guidelines.  From lists of possible answers, each committee member selected their top five choices.  Answers were tallied for each workgroup and the top five choices of each table were shared with the entire Committee.  The outcome of the exercises (highest scores or most frequent responses) was as follows:

a.  “Community Priorities”: 

·        Provide a safe place to live and work.

·        Improve employment opportunities.

·        Improve schools and education programs.

·        Control (plan for) the rate of growth.

·        Improve roads and highways.

Other priorities included improving business (and manufacturing) opportunities, and protecting farmland, water quality, and historical and cultural resources. One comment made, which received general agreement, was fostering opportunity and desire to both live and work in DeKalb County.

b.  “What to Focus On”:

·        Protecting people’s and pets’ lives.

·        Protecting critical facilities.

·        Protecting public health.

·        Protecting public services.

·        Give special attention to elderly/disabled.

c.  “How to Fund and Implement”:

·        Develop public-private partnerships.

·        Make people aware of how they can protect themselves.

·        Make people aware of the hazards they face.

·        Use county/municipal agencies to implement mitigation activities.

·        Only fund projects where it’s prove that the benefits exceed the costs.

·        Help people protect themselves.

·        Seek user fees to fund measures.

7.  Planning Step 7 – Hazard Mitigation Measures – Introduction:  Molly very briefly went over the six mitigation activities/strategies that will be discussed in the coming months. 

8.  Assignments for next meeting:  The following activities are requested of Committee members by April 10, 2007:

–        Municipalities:  Pass resolution and provide a copy to Molly or Haley, if you haven’t done so already.

–        All:  Complete the “Hazard Data Collection Form” and “Mitigation Measures Form” to Molly or Haley, if you haven’t done so already.

–        All:  Review draft Chapters 1 and 2

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

10.  Next meeting:  April 10, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at the DeKalb County Gathertorium.

11.  Adjourn:  The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.