During their Tuesday morning meeting, Lincoln County Commissioners were pleased to announce the county’s EMA director, Tim Pellerin, is one of 121 instructors in the nation to achieve state recognition for his commitment to training others in the Incident Command System (ICS).
In another matter, the county has yet to hear back from the state regarding a complaint filed with the Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) regarding a communications delay when a man jumped off the Southport Bridge in January.
Commission Chair Lynn Orne received a letter from Robert McAleer of the state Dept. of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management. She read the letter aloud to board members and for those present at the meeting, which included deputy directors Ken Desmond and Kim Kaiser.
The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) recognized Pellerin for his accomplishments as an instructor in the 2009 Indirect Authorized Training Program. According to McAleer, Pellerin received the Bronze Level of recognition for training over 100 students in 10-14 classes. Each course requires approximately 14-18 hours of class time in the ICS training.
Quoting the CDP, McAleer said, “We consider these 121 to be the cream of the crop trainers who are consistently providing valuable training at the local level.”
McAleer added the state wide ICS program relies heavily on the support of county EMA directors.
“Without a proactive approach, such as that demonstrated by Tim, the state would be hard pressed to meet even the simplest of emergency response requirements,” McAleer said.
County commissioners praised Pellerin for his efforts and for the efforts of the entire EMA staff. Commissioner Sheridan Bond said he was impressed with Pellerin’s instruction over that of other courses he has taken. They recognized Desmond, who has also taught the courses and Kaiser for her expertise and work.
Recognizing the two members of his team sitting in the room, Pellerin said, “If you surround yourself with good people, you will succeed. We do work hard and love what we do.”
Desmond said the county agency received a call from a neighboring county who had asked for help.
“I guess we’re doing things right,” he said.
Kaiser said she was involved in a tabletop training seminar in Aroostook County, where emergency personnel had sought additional training. She said their county’s agency did not have the tabletop training model. Emergency personnel review possible scenarios on scale models (such as a downtown setting) to help prepare for incidents. Kaiser said the demonstration was well received.
Pellerin added the state has approached their agency to hire them in training emergency personnel in Presque Isle.
“It certainly speaks well of your department,” Commissioner William Blodgett said.
Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell, noting the EMA department has plenty of toys, gadgets and an exceptional staff on hand, gave Pellerin a token of his admiration. Pellerin smiled as O’Connell presented him with a model locomotive. The number ‘121’ on its side represented the 121 Bronze Level trainers in the nation.
On Jan. 15, when a man jumped off the Southport swing bridge, several minutes passed between an initial 911 cell phone call and the time First Responders arrived. This delay prompted an internal investigation and multi-agency report, which discovered that the call had been incorrectly directed to two different communications centers via the DPS.
In his letter to Jordan, dated April 14, O’Connell states there has been no further information from the DPS in Augusta since February, when the state sent a record of the emergency communications audio.
O’Connell said, “Our intention is to complete our investigation in order to determine how best to improve communications between all the parties involved and to provide answers to the public about how the system failed and what steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence.”