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Unwieldy, with evolving goals, the group decides to form two branches: predisaster to teach residents to prepare, and postdisaster to help rescue workers after a catastrophe occurs.
By MELIA BOWIE and JOHN BALZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 1, 2002
The group is separating into two autonomous arms: a predisaster group, which will educate the community on disaster preparation; and a postdisaster group, which will aid rescue workers.
The move seeks to rein in what members say was becoming an unwieldy organization.
"We felt it had gotten too big, too bureaucratic and gotten away from the mission, which is to educate," said Lois Haas of Hunter's Green, who co-chaired the council with her husband, Bob. The couple are moving to Denver in the spring.
The council's nine-person executive board voted last week to dissolve and continue on as committee members instead.
"They want to go back to being a community group," Haas said. The council no longer plans to seek nonprofit status, she added.
Members will be on hiatus until January.
"What we're going to do is refocus," said member Mike Carricato of Pebble Creek, likening the move to downsizing. After the holidays, "those of us who are still interested will meet and reformat."
Formed 18 months ago as an arm of the New Tampa Community Council, the emergency group received accolades and support from various city and county officials.
Lauded as one of the most comprehensive neighborhood efforts of its kind, the group made a brief presentation before the City Council last month.
"Within the city they're the most active in developing an emergency preparedness plan," Kern Wilson, Tampa's emergency management coordinator, said at the time.
"They want to do a lot and there is a lot that they could do."
In recent months, the organization crafted brochures, launched an information hotline at 878-5019 and a Web site, www.newtampaprepare.com. The hotline and the Internet site will continue to be updated despite the reorganization, Haas said.
"The NTEPC has absolutely no plans of going anywhere," she emphasized, noting a rededication to education.
But the group's evolving goals, while compatible, did not mesh.
Now, the Certified Emergency Response Team committee, a more active branch, will help rescue workers with disaster-related tasks such a setting up a shelter or locating the injured.
Seventeen homeowners, some of them committee members, took 24 hours worth of CERT disaster classes this summer. Organizers hope to encourage an additional 200 to take the classes in 2003.
"The bottom line is we could deploy right now but it wouldn't be as pretty as it will be," said Dave Newsom, CERT coordinator.
New Tampa CERT, the first in the bay area, has already received calls from Temple Terrace, Brandon and South Tampa residents seeking to set up teams, organizers said.
New Tampa's team plans to hold its first live exercise at the Hunter's Green Health and Safety Expo next spring featuring overturned buses and "victims" in stage makeup as props in a simulated disaster.