An unCERTan future looms for citizen response group

If a hurricane or other natural disaster were to strike, Lakewood Ranch resident Jon Lyon has a backpack and supplies ready to assist his neighbors and the wherewithal to communicate transportation conditions to Manatee County’s Emergency Operations Center.

Lyon is president of the Lakewood Ranch Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which was founded to protect the area in case of a crisis.

The organization, which was founded in 2006, has been supported by the county with the initial training of CERT members from its inception through 2014, which a FEMA grant that supported the training was denied.

Lyon’s 250-plus member organization, along with three other CERT teams in Manatee County (Waterlefe, University Park and Trailer Estates) are facing an unsure future. Lyon wonders how they agencies will progress without the support of the Manatee County Emergency Management Department. Some of the CERT programs might not continue to exist.

“We’re the biggest CERT and we’re the only ones doing training,” Lyon said of Lakewood Ranch CERT. “We’re not getting any feedback from the county.”

Harry Benas is a member of a developing CERT program (nine members) in Central Park and he wonders if such a program can work in his neighborhood without county support.

“We’re all in limbo,” Benas said. “When we do have a hurricane, who do we work with? Who do we tie in with and work our programs around? There’s a hole here.”

CERT members say Manatee County has changed its county-appointed liaison to CERT at least three times in the last four years. They say it is unclear if there any longer is a county contact.

Manatee County Emergency Operations stopped providing training to new CERT members two years ago when a grant application to the FEMA was declined. The grant provided funding for training, a startup CERT backpack and supplies and a certificate of course completion.

The task of training has fallen to the individual CERT organizations, which the Lakewood Ranch CERT being in the best position because it has its own funding source through homeowners association dues while also having its own instructors.

The Lakewood Ranch CERT has helped train members from other county CERT programs, but is limited in how much it can help. Smaller CERT programs such as the one in Waterlefe are struggling.

“We feel like we’re on our own,” said Stephanie Lang, a longtime leader of Waterlefe CERT who recently moved to The Lake Club.

Manatee’s Public Safety Director Bob Smith said Manatee County’s role with CERT always has been limited.

“The county has never actually sponsored a CERT team,” Smith said. “We hosted training. From there, the intent was these folks go to the community and establish their own teams there. CERT is at the community level. It’s not a county-based program. Nothing has changed for CERT since 2015. We’re just not conducting the training in our facility.”

Smith said the CERT training previously provided by the county was similar to CPR training. It provided a basic groundwork for CERT members, but the training was conducted just once and participants were sent off with an emergency kit and certificate. The new members needed to look to their teams to provide additional training.

CERT members from Waterlefe, University Park and Lakewood Ranch, as well as the budding Central Park, believe otherwise.

“They flat outright were our sponsor,” Lyon said. “We know that because they applied for the grants (to fund training). You can’t apply for a grant without being a sponsor.”

Manatee County officials have indicated to CERT that they hope local fire departments will become CERT sponsors.

Lakewood Ranch’s team has started discussions with East Manatee Fire Rescue District about sponsorship, but East Manatee Fire District Chief Lee Whitehurst said no decisions have been made.

Lyon said sponsorship of the CERT program should have been transitioned, rather than eliminated by the county without a finalized succession plan.

He said having the county sponsor CERT makes sense from a “feet-on-the-ground standpoint,” as CERT team members provide photographs, roadway information and other intelligence to the county’s emergency operations during disasters.

“How will CERT now get information about the status of an impending disaster, the extent of flooding, the timeframe within which to expect first responders?” said Victor Kline, a longtime member of Lakewood Ranch CERT. “We have requested every year that emergency management incorporate CERT into the county’s comprehensive emergency management plan. From a disaster management standpoint, wouldn’t you want to be a resource?”

Manatee County Commissioner Robin DiSabatino has been tasked by her board to make sense of what is happening and report back. She said she is still trying to understand what has happened and the status of CERT going forward — questions raised by the Trailer Estates CERT during a May county commission meeting.

Smith said the FEMA grant awarded to Manatee County until 2015 provided matching dollars to the county. Manatee County has some supplies remaining and will provide those until they run out. At that point, it will have to consider how to move forward, since funding is not allocated for more, he said.