August 27, 2025

STILLWATER TOWNSHIP
CERT
August 27, 2025

The meeting was held in the OEM room at the Town Hall and began at 7:05pm.

Present: Maureen Tsadilas, John Tsadilas, Ilene Schwartz, Barbara Kimmich, Carol Kouba, Michelle (Shelly) Vosper, Willy Corbisiero, Connie O’Grady, Syrene Crowell, Lori Breen, Christie Genthur, Vince Troiano

Old Business: 
Thank you to Ilene and Carol for running the July meeting. Thank you to Carol for arranging for the guest speakers from Maverick’s Legacy.

The Community Firewise program is still in the planning stage. Maureen is working with the fire liaison, Brandon Smith, to get the program going in Stillwater. Residents would self-report on what they are doing to make their property fire safe, and could also obtain site exams that would advise them on how to improve fire safety.

New Business:

OEM Report:
Stillwater’s Emergency Operation Plan has been approved. It is good for two years.

Stillwater was the Incident Command Center for a recent missing person case. The search was successful.

Stillwater received an EMMA Grant through FEMA. Due to changes at FEMA the money maty not be available next year.

Other New Business:
A Basic CERT course will be held in Sussex County, probably in October.

The town approved two new positions within CERT. Ilene Schwartz is now our Tech Support Officer, and Michelle Vosper is our new Liaison Reporter (corresponding secretary).

On September 18th, there will be a train derailment disaster training in Kenvil, organized by Hopatcong CERT.

Maureen is working with Ramapo Search & Rescue to set up a training date in September. It will be held at Fairview Lake.

There will also be a Wilderness Training course at Fairview Lake that will be taught over two days. However, it doesn’t require participants to stay overnight.

We have two events coming up that need volunteers: Sussex County Day on September 14th and Stillwater Fall Festival on October 11th.

Should we make bird feeder kits at the November meeting as we did last year? (To give out at Stillwater Christmas Tree Lighting)

There is no CERT meeting in December.

According to Lisa, JCP&L will again present a Live Wire Safety demo on September 23rd at 7pm at the Sussex County Fairgrounds. If you attend, please wear your CERT gear.

Michelle offered a link to a New York Times climate disaster article.

Stillwater CERT now has 22 members, with 21 being active.

Each member present talked about how they became involved with CERT.

Stillwater is budgeting for CERT funds and background checks because we are considered first responders. Starting in 2026, we will have to vote on expenditures because we are operating with taxpayer funds.

Links to ICS 100 & 700 courses will be put on the Stillwater CERT website for easy access. The State Police want information about how many members we have and how many are active. They also keep track of our trainings.

Maureen led a discussion of what should be in everyone’s “Go Bag” and what was in CERT’s “Go Bucket.”

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Carol Kouba