STILLWATER TOWNSHIP
CERT
May 27, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Meeting Held at the Stillwater Community Center
931 Swartswood Road, Newton, NJ 07860
Flag Salute
Old Business:
Approval of 4/22/2026 meeting minutes
Fire and EMS Report – EMS 119; Fire 53 (as of 5/25/2026).
Old Business:
OEM Report: Lisa Chammings
Search & Rescue exercise was held on May 3rd. The exercise included the Hopatcong CERT Team and their new K-9 Search Unit. The exercise also included drone search and video of the rescue. Volunteers learned how to operate the Incident Command Center, Radio Communications, Mapping with Caltopo, Procedures for using a Compass, and how to work alongside the rescue K-9 Team. Safety techniques for the volunteers in the field.
Thank you to Ken Lauffer for creating our training video from his drone operations.
CERT Community Service Program was held on May 5th. Presented by Department of Human and Health Services. The program was about tick and sun safety and had a great public turnout! CERT offered free sun and skincare gift bags.
Connie O’Grady and Maureen Tsadilas presented a first aid safety program for the Girl Scouts on May 11th. Fireman Shawn O’Grady brought fire gear and explained some fire safety skills for the girls. The Girl Scouts experienced first hand what it is like to have a fireman rescue you. On June 1st, the Girl Scouts will make a first aid kit to take home. This will complete their badge requirement for first aid.
CERT earned $300.00 for their participating in Clean Up Day. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help.
Background checks are all complete, with the exception of 2, as of May 16th. Thank you to all for taking the time from your workday to complete the background check. Maureen will complete the paperwork on each volunteer and send them to OEM for Lisa to finish the process. Volunteers who don’t have CERT ID card will then receive their CERT cards.
New Business:
Community Safety Program will be held on June 9th and will be about Home Safety for all ages. It will be held at the Community Center from 1p-2p. Ilene will confirm the program for July.
Stillwater Day will be June 6th and start at 2pm, set up being at 1pm and ending time for CERT table is 5pm. CERT’s table will be an educational table and have some giveaways. Maureen asked the volunteers if making and serving snow cones would be possible. Profits would go into the CERT training budget. $4.00 per snow cone.
Maureen requested a motion that the June CERT meeting be moved from June 24th to June 17th. Maureen will not be available.
A request was made by Hardwick Township on April 17th to have our CERT team support the First Annual Oktoberfest on October 4th. This would include public safety operations, specifically the oversight at the Stillwater Road crossing and managing traffic flow as needed. In preparation, Maureen has taken the online TIM (Traffic Incident Management Responder Training) course. Online information is handed out to the volunteers and they were also asked to take the training.
Hopatcong CERT will be hosting the Sussex County Division of Health presentation on Sun and Tick Safety. Anyone interested, it will be on June 18th at 7pm, address TBD.
Maureen submitted 3 different forms to OEM on May 22nd regarding CERTs Media Policy. Maureen is unsure if all 3 are necessary, but they are used by other CERT teams within NJ. The forms are: CERT media release & consent form, CERT media privacy & conduct policy, and CERT media recording, privacy, & public conduct policy.
Adjournment:
Respectfully submitted,
Maureen Tsadilas
CERT Program Coordinator
