By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Another Fayette County emergency preparedness program has received praise from federal officials.

Fayette's Government Industry Self-Assessment Program has been included in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Compendium of Exemplary Practices in Emergency Management.

“Your nomination and others like it demonstrate that there are ways to better utilize the limited emergency management resources available at the federal, state and local levels of government, as well as in private enterprise and the volunteer sector,” said Kay Goss, FEMA's associate director for preparedness, in a letter to Capt. Pete Nelms of the county Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

In addition to other duties, Nelms is head of Fayette's intergovernmental emergency preparedness programs and chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, which involves local businesses and industries in planning for industrial accidents.

Fayette's programs for dealing with hazardous materials already have been included in the compendium, which is distributed to emergency management organizations nationwide.

The Government Industry Self-Assessment Program is a computer-generated check list developed by Barbara Jordan of Photocircuits, said Nelms.

“She's the brains behind it,” he said.

The program provides “a template for making an emergency response plan that satisfies all the different regulations, and it's all in one document so [industries] can train on it and use it effectively,” said Jordan.

“One of the things we identified in LEPC was that we needed to standardize the minimum requirements for an emergency response plan,” she said.

Using the check list, industries can “be sure all the elements are there for response,” she added.

Tom Martinelli of Photocircuits and Jim Christopher of NCR helped develop the program, she said.

FEMA's Goss called the program “an outstanding example of the emergency management community working together in service to the public.”