ISLAND COMMUNITY BOARD
P.O. Box 464, Fishers Island, NY 06390
Tel: 631-788-7990
Email: ficommunityboard@gmail.com
ICB August Meeting
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
5:30 – 6:30 pm
Community Center Multi-Purpose Room
Attendance 13
Attending: (in person) Ace Ahrens, Heather Burnham, Gordon Murphy, Tim Patterson (on the phone) Karen Goodwin, Tom O’Neil, Marc Rubenstein
Review of Emergency Protocol
Tim Patterson shared how the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) worked during the blizzard. A group met Monday morning at the school including representatives from the School, Ferry, Fire, Utility Co, Fog Horn and several others. Tim was in charge of the EOC (Mike Imbriglio is our Emergency Coordinator, but he was off island). The EOC officially opened at the Fire House from 5:30 pm – noon on Tuesday and was staffed by island volunteers. To our knowledge this was the first EOC for a winter storm – they more typically happen during hurricane season. No one took advantage of the shelter, but the Fire House was a hub during the storm.
Karen Goodwin reported that the generator that was connected to the school during Superstorm Sandy is not large enough to run the heat, lights and kitchen at the school. The School Board is exploring what the cost would be to set up the “proper” connection for a generator for future storms. They have asked Z&S and BD for estimates. There was a discussion that the island should have a generator of the necessary size to give the school enough power to serve as a shelter in case we lost power during a storm. Lloyd Reisenberg, the deputy Southold Emergency Coordinator, has indicated that there isn’t available funding for a generator, but perhaps Southold could help fund the cost of the proper connection for our existing generator. Louisa was going to talk to folks in Southold when she went over to her next town meeting.
Tim gave special thanks to Jane Ahrens, Louisa Evans and Karen Goodwin who worked to create the emergency phone tree that was used to communicate with islanders during the storm. Karen explained that the school’s phone system let them set up a community list that can be used in emergency circumstances, similar to the list they have to communicate with the parents.
Election Committee and Charter
Tom led the conversation about our elections. The by-laws dictate that the elections are held in July or August. They also explain who can vote. We will need to form a committee to work on nominations. The idea of having a “work session” over a weekend in March or April was brought up. This would allow the ICB to focus on our goals for the summer vs the discussion of our “regular” business at our monthly meetings.
Manager/ Mark’s Memo:
Heather shared that Mark had only heard from several people about his memo outlining the manager’s position. Please read and share any thoughts with Mark. We will discuss more at our next meeting since Mark was unable to be on the call.
Priorities for ICB
It was discussed that the ICB needs to develop its priorities and get community support for those priorities before we can move forward. The group present decided that we should aim for the Memorial Day public meeting to present our goals to the larger community. An action item for all ICB board members is to come up with 3 Short Term Goals and 3 Long Term Goals before our next meeting. Jamie will send an email asking us all for these in advance so we can put the list together before we meet. This will allow us to determine our goals and priorities.
