By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer
About 30 leaders and city officials attended the annual North Royalton Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) meeting on Saturday January 24, at the North Royalton High School media center. The annual meeting was scheduled to plan for the upcoming year’s CERT training, exercises and community activities, according to North Royalton CERT Commander, Nick Phillips.
This year, the general meetings are scheduled for February 18, March 25, May 20, September 17, October 14 and November 18. Radio Training is scheduled for April 18 and a CERT Exercise is scheduled for June 13. CERT will also participate in the city’s Safety Fair on May 9, St. Albert the Great Picnic’s First Aid Station on July 18 and the North Royalton Homecoming and Parade on August 21-23. Phillips said that CERT will also continue to provide assistance at North Royalton High School football games as well.
Phillips continues to seek new CERT members. “If you want to have something done, give it to a busy person. Those are the kinds of people we are looking for. We try to set up a schedule that is most reasonable. We schedule the meetings starting in January, but then wind down before the summer. Then it will ramp up again in the Fall and end before the holidays,” said Phillips. “People should be aware of what CERT is and what the time-commitments are and should be willing to make that commitment. With that, we are trying to ramp up our training program to make sure it is easier to attain,” said Phillips.
New members are required to complete an eight-week course directed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which takes place at various locations. The closest location is Southwest General Hospital in Middleburg Heights. The program is offered several times a year and is broken down into blocks, so if a block is missed, it can be taken at a different location. Other basic online training from FEMA is also offered and CERT members are asked to take that training for incident management.
“Any North Royalton resident 18 years of age or older, who is interested in serving their community as a volunteer member of the North Royalton CERT is welcome to submit an application to the North Royalton City Hall,” according to Phillips. The applications are available online at www.northroyaltoncert.org or from the North Royalton Police Department, located at 14000 Bennett Road at the corner of Bennett and Rt. 82. Anyone interested in more information about the North Royalton CERT can log into the www.northroyaltoncert.org or call Phillips at 440-243-2800.