Mayor’s weekly update June 13, 2009
Detroit Tool Metal Products. Thanks to the hard work, civic involvement, and a very
cooperative attitude towards the idea of a better Lebanon, a locally-owned and operated
company is able to expand its operations in our City. DTMP is increasing their
production capacity here by adding a new facility that will bring 120+ good paying jobs
to Lebanon. These are jobs that our community needed. The City of Lebanon is proud to
have worked with DTMP and a number of other groups to make this possible.
Lebanon City Office of Emergency Management. Why an Office of Emergency
Management for the City of Lebanon? Because it is required by law, references: The
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), as
amended, Public Law 100-707, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207; Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act (SARA), Public Law 99-499, Oct. 17, 1986; 42 U.S.C. 11001 et
seq., Missouri Revised Statues, Chapter 44, Civil Defense, Section 44-08, “All political
subdivisions shall establish a local emergency management organization”, August 28,
2008, as amended; City of Lebanon Code of Ordinances, Chapter 7, Civil Disasters and
Emergencies, Articles I, II, and III, as amended, City Council Resolution adopting the
National Incident Management System (NMIS) as the City of Lebanon standard for
emergency operations planning and response, April 2009, City Council Resolution
adopting the Laclede County Hazard Mitigation Plan as the City of Lebanon Hazard
Mitigation standard for planning and response, May 2009.
In addition the following guidelines are applicable to the City’s emergency preparedness:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Guide for State and Local All
Hazards Emergency Operations Planning, SLG-101, September 1996; State of Missouri
Emergency Operations Plan, as amended; County of Laclede Emergency Operations
Plan, May 2008; and numerous other references.
I would like to address some misconceptions and misinformation that may be in the
public’s mind on this issue. First is the cost, at the present no additional positions are
being created. All assignments are additional duties to personnel already in the employ
of the City. Secondly, the issue is one of preparedness for all-hazards, emergencies, or
situations that may arise within the City of Lebanon. The City efforts are not in
competition with Laclede County OEM but are in fact complimentary of the County’s
OEM and will continue to support County OEM operations as we currently do. The
relationship that the City of Lebanon’s emergency services enjoy with the Laclede
County OEM is excellent. The County OEM Director has provided invaluable support to
the City as we develop a City Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) in parallel to the new
County EOP. As the City is a separate political sub-division that resides within Laclede
County, the City of Lebanon has unique requirements that only the City is capable of full
filling by law. Preparedness at all levels is essential to public safety. The City is taking
its first steps in complying with national and state emergency management guidelines.
Third, thanks to top notch Fire and Police Chiefs that think out of the box and ahead of
the power curve, the City has mutual aid agreements with every fire and police agency in
Laclede County and the surrounding counties. The City also has either memorandums of
understanding or service support agreements with the primary non-government
organizations that provide emergency support services in our county to include the Red
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Mayor’s weekly update June 13, 2009
Cross and St. Johns. The City also has service and support agreements in place with
several state and federal agencies. The City is moving forward towards a comprehensive
approach to all-hazards emergency preparedness.
The City has already entered into low-level preliminary discussions with the County
OEM to address a joint emergency operations center to leverage each others capabilities,
eliminate duplication, and improve emergency services to our citizens.
Storms and debris. This week’s storms have been intense, there have been a number of
trees down, and power lines damaged. City electric crews have had some very long and
hard hours to get roads cleared and power restored. They did an outstanding job and I for
one applaud their efforts. With all of the rains recently, the ground is saturated. Trees
that have shallow roots are at risk during high winds. If you know of a tree that is at risk
of falling into power lines please let the City Help Desk know by calling 531-2156. If we
can get to it before it goes into power lines, a lot of people will be happy with not having
their power interrupted.
If you have streams, storm water run-off, or drain ditches with debris; please clean it out.
The house that does NOT get flooded by doing this may be yours.
The City will be doing debris pick up within the week. A separate notice will be released
when that schedule is completed. You may bring any yard debris to the City Public
Works facility during regularly published hours.
Kids Fishing Day. The Parks Department, our primary corporate sponsors, and number
of volunteers are working hard to make this great event for our kids happen this August.
We are still in need of assistance though. There is a lot of work that needs to be done
between now and then. If you are able to donate funds, materials, or labor and wish to
participate in a great event for our Community please do help. Contact the Parks
Director, Mr. John Shelton, at 532-4642 or lebparks@llion.org. Thank you for helping.
City Website. A number of people have spoken to me about our website. The response
has been 100% favorable to this point. There have been a number of suggestions to make
it better or to add some content. Some of these ideas we have already been able to
incorporate. We appreciate your input.
We have had a number of people ask about the contact us hotlinks to city e-mail.
Apparently these individuals have been getting an error message or a failure of some sort
when they hit the hot link to send an e-mail to a city address. The Information Services
staff has verified that the addresses are correct and that the hot links are working
correctly. I tested it myself yesterday and I was able to send an e-mail to an address from
the computer that I was working from. Here is what the IS staff thinks the problem might
be: if you do not have Outlook© or Outlook Express© as your e-mail manager, you may
be getting these messages. If that is the case simply copy and paste the address from the
hot link into the “To” box of your message in whatever e-mail manager you might be
using. The IS staff can not be sure if this is the problem and solution for everyone. If
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Mayor’s weekly update June 13, 2009
you are having this problem, try the suggested solution and see if it works for you. In the
meantime the IS staff is working to verify that this is indeed the case. If it is, they will
post this information as a note so that people are able to work from it.
As always, if you have a question, comment or concern please contact me at
mayor@llion.org or telephone City Hall at 417.532.2156.
Respectfully,
CP Craig
Mayor
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