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Fire Department to oversee emergency-response volunteers
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More from Breaking NewsVentura County's hundreds of emergency-response volunteers will work together under the coordination of the Ventura County Fire Department, the county Board of Supervisors decided today.
In a unanimous vote, the board approved a proposal by County Fire Chief Bob Roper to oversee and expand the county's various Community Emergency Response Training, or CERT, programs. The Fire Department's proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which won't go before the board until next month, will include a request for $453,528 over the next two years to hire a CERT coordinator, start up the office and train as many as 2,000 volunteers.
"Our intent is for this to work as seed money," Roper said. "This person will be able to bring grants in, and we anticipate that we will be self-funded after two years."
Disaster preparedness programs like CERT have been major recipients of federal grant money since September 11, 2001. Many grants will be hard to come by in the coming years due to tight state and federal budgets, but the CERT money will probably still keep flowing, Supervisor Steve Bennett said.
"There's been great interest in this at the federal level," he said.
"We have a much better chance of getting grants in this area than we do in some others."
There are already CERT groups in almost every area of the Ventura County. The largest, in Santa Paula, has more than 300 graduates.
"What we teach you is, basically, how to survive in an earthquake, how to help someone whose house has collapsed, and some basic first aid and fire safety measures," Roper said.
The existing programs will retain their autonomy under the new plan.
The new Fire Department official will be there to offer additional training and the ability to coordinate with other cities.
"If Oxnard is having a CERT training class and someone in Santa Paula needs training, that person can come over and take the class now, too," Roper said.
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