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Town Council weathers “storm” of comments on blizzard “conditions” |
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
Reverse 911 reviewed, business owners speak, MLPD needs a new building
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Town Council listens to Chamber of Commerce President Eric Wasserman under the watchful eyes of a full house.
When Mayor Skip Harvey pounded the gavel, Suite Z was standing room only and people lined up against the south wall ready to rumble. Mayor Harvey told the group that the storm issue was on the agenda and they would have opportunities to speak.
Leigh Gaasch spoke about her “Get Involved, Make A Difference” meeting so the Town Council heard firsthand about what happened, specifically about the conversation regarding Sierra Valley Sites. She asked the Town Council to agendize the issue of the Sierra Valley Sites so the Council can create a budget to handle whatever problems might occur in that area.
Principal Town Planner Steve Speidel let the Council know that the Draft Park and Recreation Master Plan is available for public comment and review. The document will be posted on the Web site, CDs of the plan are available for purchase on the Web site with hard copies available at the Library. “We are going to ask for public involvement as well as involvement from the commissions,” Speidel said. Comments should be turned in no later than Feb. 14.
Storm procedures: The town was prepared
“We want to do everything we can to make this a safe community for our guests,” said MLFD Chief Brent Harper. Chief Harper led the Reverse 911 recap with a brief history, so the public could understand some of the decisions that were made. “The event two years ago caught us by surprise and caught our volunteers so they couldn’t get out of the station,” Harper recollected. “We couldn’t get some of our first responders and police into town. We weren't ready for a shelter, but nevertheless had about 100 people show up for a shelter. This time we had all communications between all the agencies in place and were fully prepared.”
Harper went on to say that during the holiday storm two years ago the communication they had with California Highway Patrol was so poor, many people were going up and down the highway when they should have stayed put. “Many cars were left abandoned on the highway and the storm did eventually turn deadly as it made its way across the county,” Harper said. “This time we got the snow, but didn’t get the winds that were predicted and fortunately we were in better shape.”
All the emergency responders met the Wednesday in advance of the storm to discuss how to best prepare for it. “Maybe we should have watered down the warnings but we passed on the information we had were receiving as best we could,” added Harper. “We even got an SCE crew to stay in town for the first time just in case, and we paid for extra bodies in the Fire Department to stay in town just in case volunteers couldn’t get in.”
“From my recollection this is the first time we’ve been so well prepared for a storm,” said MLPD Chief Randy Schienle. “It did turn out to be just another Mammoth storm, but all the information we got indicated that it was going to be more than that.” Some of the reports received by Schienle stated, “It's going to be a mess for travelers and the road conditions will be impossible,” according to the Reno branch of the National Weather Service. Schienle said he spoke with the Chief of Police in South Lake Tahoe and told Council of the mess Tahoe was during the storm. “They didn’t have Reverse 911 and the Town of Mammoth Lakes didn’t have the problems a lot of other resort towns experienced. Two years ago we only had six officers who worked 24 hours a day. This time we had extra officers housed in a local hotel just in case.”
The Town's Mike Grossblatt reflected on the briefings that took place before the storm and put the EOC workings into perspective. “We all wanted what was best for the community in terms of public safety,” Grossblatt said. “934-8054 is now the public information line and when the EOC has to be opened it will be answered by a live person. We took over 175 calls from visitors and locals looking for information and also got the information out via the media. 'Be safe, be smart, be prepared and be informed' was the message we gave to the public. We certainly did not tell people to go home. Our determination of how we deal with these storm updates gets passed down from the heads of state and that’s where we got the information.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 January 2008 )
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