Moniteau County residents are establishing a community emergency response team (CERT).
Anyone wishing to help their community is invited to join an upcoming review session regarding the program.
CERTs, like the Boone County CERT which presented more information on the idea to the Moniteau County Crime Watch organization in June, are trained citizens who can help first responders in large-scale emergencies. Following the presentation, a group of residents wishing to form the team received support from Moniteau County Sheriff Tony Wheatley and Moniteau County Office of Emergency Management Director Kevin Wieberg, who will sponsor the CERT.
Roger Pilkenton, a crime watch member who has spearheaded the CERT efforts, said the upcoming crime watch organization meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in Heyssel Hall at the Moniteau County Library, 501 S. Oak St., will review the CERT to catch anyone new up to speed. He said anyone interested in being a part of the team can attend the meeting. Once formed, anyone can be a part of the Moniteau County CERT -- regardless whether they live in Moniteau County or not.
Victoria Apperson, a holistic healing consultant, will also be present at the meeting to discuss essential oils.
Pilkenton added the meeting will include some "homework" reviewing the emergency response preparedness concept, which is the basis of the CERT and one of the intended purposes of the crime watch organization. Although many crime watch members are involved with forming the CERT, and the team is being discussed during crime watch meetings, he confirmed the CERT and Moniteau County Crime Watch are two separate organizations. The CERT is a certified program featuring training and exercise sessions.
Sheriff Wheatley said sponsoring agencies -- the sheriff's office and Office of Emergency Management -- will help provide guidance for the program, along with training and support. Members of the team itself will be responsible for creating policies and procedures.
The policies and procedures, along with coordination with local agencies, will determine how the CERT would respond to certain emergencies. While the team might not be utilized frequently, Wheatley said a CERT can be an invaluable tool during large-scale emergencies like the wildfire that burned a large portion of Wooldridge last fall. During these emergencies, personnel can quickly become overwhelmed.
"The CERT team kind of steps in and helps, like in (the Wooldridge fire), the sheriff's office and emergency management coordinate our resources," he said. "Things that we would have to dedicate our people to do, such as staging equipment and personnel at the command post and sending them out where they need to go, keeping track of logging everyone in and out, there's several things that have to be done that will tie up valuable personnel that could be doing other things."
Pilkenton said the organization acts as the "nails that holds the shoe on the horse" during responses by completing more menial tasks, allowing professional first responders to focus on more important tasks.
"The intent is to focus on a demographic of individuals who are capable of assisting their community who wouldn't already be tasked with emergency response during a disaster," Wieberg said. "... CERT isn't intended to be a response organization, such as a fire department, but a group who can help responders during a large-scale event."
CERTs can also help in search-and-rescue operations, along with other situations they've received training in, Wheatley added. The teams can also be activated to assist with community events, such as providing crowd control, administering first aid or parking cars during events.
Pilkenton said almost anyone can join a CERT. Once established, Boone County's CERT will assist the Moniteau County team with free training. He added it can take about a year to receive basic CERT certification, and training is ongoing to stay current with the latest techniques and information.
"It'd be beneficial to people who want to be able to help other people in ways that they have not had any previous training, and it's ways that people may find that they have some experience or education through the training that will enable them to help other people and help other organizations when called upon to help in these major incidents," Pilkenton said.
Pilkenton has been involved with CERT programs since 2009, when he joined the Boone County CERT while living in Columbia. After the Boone County meetings were moved to Hallsville, he said he became active in the Cole County program until it disbanded due to a lack of participation. He said Cole County is currently in the process of restarting its CERT program.
Wieberg said some CERT programs struggle with volunteer participation, as "the occurrence of disasters are few and far between (thankfully)."
Starting the team with county-wide participation has been a goal of its founding members, Pilkenton said. Moniteau County Crime Watch is hoping to hold future meetings outside California and Jamestown to attract participants from all parts of the county.
"We want to let folks know that this will be a county-wide program that we want to, again, bring people greater awareness about community emergency preparedness."