OLDS — The Incident Command Post (ICP) set up to co-ordinate the Town of Olds' response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be cut from seven team members to two, due to the town’s current low caseload.
That’s down a long way from a few weeks ago, when the ICP had a team of 12.
Brian Powell, the town’s director of emergency management, made the announcement during a recent town council meeting, held via Zoom, saying he anticipated those numbers to fall to two by March 4.
“However, we’re not going anywhere,” Powell said, adding they’ll continue to monitor the COVID situation in Olds.
“You’re just going to see the incident management team continue with our regular biweekly updates as you’ve requested,” he said.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper wondered what it would take before the ICP might see its staff increase again.
“I don’t want to be a pessimist, I want to be an optimist, but I’ll be the pessimist right now. At what point do we have to again initiate the ICP? Would it be a certain number of cases in Olds? When it reaches a certain number? What?” she asked.
Powell said several factors would go into that decision. One would be case counts, not only in Olds, but in the surrounding area. He said that was a major reason the ICP was set up previously.
“Olds was very much on a dangerous threshold," he said. “We were already at what the province identified as the dangerous threshold when we hit our 10 (COVID cases) and then we migrated into those 30 (plus) cases really quickly.
“And so when we see local cases extend at or beyond that 10 there’s in all likelihood a chance of a resurrection of an ICP again,” he added.
As of end of day on March 1, the Olds local geographic region -- which includes the town and north Mountain View County -- had sic active cases.
Powell said other things could also trigger the resurrection of the ICP.
“We already have auto activations in place if the fire department for example goes down. It automatically launches the formation of an ICP,” he said.
“I guess these next times around are a little easier for us. We’ve walked those paths, so to speak. People know their roles and what it is they’re supposed to do.”
During the meeting, council also approved its emergency management plan which must be updated annually.
Staff and council noted Olds frequently gets requests from other municipalities for copies of the town's emergency plan because it's so good.
"We’re getting requests for our plans because they’re not only complete, they’re well done, they're well thought out and they’re actually implementable, so I think that’s huge," chief administrative officer Michael Merritt said.
"I guess, as a community, we should feel secure that if another emergency takes place on top of the current pandemic, we will be ready for it and help our community adjust to any of the changes. As you know, these things can come upon people totally unexpected, as happened in the state of Texas and a number of other places in the U.S. that we’ve seen.
"I think it’s very important to have a team together that understands action and can basically take these plans and put them into action. So I have to thank my emergency management team tremendously for the time and effort they put into this. They take this tremendously seriously and I know that (Alberta Emergency Management Agency) look upon this group as one of the top notch groups in the province. "
