Sparta council honors CERT graduates
SPARTA — The Sparta Township Council hosted a graduation ceremony for members of the CERT Program at Tuesday's Township Council meeting.
CERT was formed under the umbrella of the Sparta Township Emergency Preparedness Initiative and implemented for Sparta by Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn, along with Police Chief Ernie Reigstad and Coordinator Alex Kloian. STEP is the recently renovated system for Sparta residents to be prepared before, during and after a widespread disaster. The program included the implementation of the Honeywell alert system, the informational phone number “726-INFO,” and “Go-2 Centers”, designated places residents can go if their home/power is affected.
Go-2 Centers are activated at the time of the emergency and information will be posted on the Sparta Police Facebook page, as well as through the Sparta Township Honeywell Alert System. Go-2 Centers in Sparta are Town Hall, the Sparta Township Library, Lake Mohawk Country Club and St. Mary’s Church.
The CERT Program is for volunteers who want to be prepared and educated in assisting other community members in times of crisis. CERT teaches disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, disaster psychology, CERT organization, CERT and terrorism and ends with a disaster simulation.
CERT volunteers underwent 22 hours of training —required by FEMA — and received certificates of completion and Emergency Preparedness Kits.
“During Hurricane Sandy, many residents did not know where to go to charge phones and computers; to warm up and to get information," Quinn said. "Although there were systems already in place, this was a total breakdown in communication, including widespread power outages, dangerous roads, limited gas availability and power lines down in the streets, as well as flooding. Although, as a community, Sparta always comes together and helps each other in times of need, in the case of Hurricane Sandy, people did not know where they could go for help, what streets were closed or what wires were down. We created STEP and CERT for Sparta to make sure this information is available and encourage residents to have a disaster plan in place.”
John Vesper, one of the graduates of the CERT program was an auxiliary police officer with the Springfield, N.J., Office of Emergency Management.
"I wanted to continue serving my community here in Sparta, as well as enhance my training," Vesper said. "Alex and the Sussex County CERT team put together an awesome program for us including search and rescue, fire hazards and triage as well as numerous other hands-on training programs. I am looking forward to helping my community and thanks to Alex and his team I feel confident with the training I received to do that task."
Recently, Quinn gave a well-received presentation of the STEP Initiative and CERT Training program and accepted the Business Partnership Award for STEP at the 2015 Sussex County Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner.
September is National Preparedness Month and there is a Public Service Announcement currently running and a display on Emergency Readiness in the Sparta Library.
For more information on STEP and the CERT Program, visit www.spartanj.org and select Sparta Township Emergency Preparedness.