OLDS — The town’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is back up and running again — only under a different name now.
Brian Powell, the town’s director of emergency management, made the announcement during a special council meeting Nov. 30.
The EOC was most recently set up last March when the pandemic lockdown began, then stood down in mid-July after the lockdown was lifted.
However, town officials decided to re-instate it on Nov. 27 after the number of people testing positive for the disease in Olds rose from 10 to 17 within four days (then to 21 as of Nov. 30).
“That’s 11 cases over our threshold identifying us as being in a higher level,” Powell said.
The decision also followed an announcement by the provincial government of new restrictions to fight COVID-19.
Powell said the name of the entity was changed to the Incident Command Post (ICP) to "harmonize with what the province is doing and what they’re identifying” so the town can efficiently communicate with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
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Powell said for the immediate future, the number of people involved in the ICP will remain at 11.
Powell said the ICP remains in regular contact with various partners within Mountain View County to ensure all involved have a clear idea of what’s going on and of the latest information on the virus in the area.
Chief administrative officer Michael Merritt said Powell also meets weekly with town senior management to ensure he and they have the latest information as well.
Powell was asked by councillors Heather Ryan -- now chair of Mountain View Seniors' Housing (MVSH) and Mary Jane Harper -- if the ICP will be sharing its latest information regarding the virus with MVSH and the two privately-run seniors’ lodges in the community – Seasons Olds and Seasons Encore.
“Absolutely,” Powell said. “And that’s the whole function of an ICP that has those conduits. The liaison officer will handle those communications in and out.”
Coun. Wanda Blatz wondered if the town will post a video of mayor Michael Muzychka giving residents the latest COVID-19-related information on the town’s Facebook page and its website.
Community services director Doug Wagstaff and Muzychka said that’s in the works.
“Right now we have been focusing on getting the interpretations of the specific guidelines cleared before we did anything that we would communicate out,” Wagstaff said.
"We want to make sure we have those guidelines as clear as possible before we’re doing anything other than referring people to the Alberta Health link.”
