Meeting Minutes 10/9/2025

In person meeting at Longreach, Maine Maritime Museum, 3:30-4:30.

Attendees: Marla, Polly, Alison, Deirdra, Michele, Robin (YMCA), Barbara, Jim, Janet, Kelly,

Tommy

Motion to approve the minutes from September accepted.

AARP Challenge Grant

● 2 grants $2500 for 6 listening sessions, one in each community.

● Disaster preparedness bags, additional grant for the content.

● Listening sessions are for community members to learn how they feel about

emergency preparedness.

● Facilitators Michele and Deirdra

● Listening Schedule Dates (Steering Committee Members are needed as note

takers. Please sign up for one. All Listening Sessions include lunch provided by

the Fountain and $20 gift card (choice of grocery or gas).

● Dates 9/11 11:30-1:00 Bath Housing Moorings, Congress Street, 9/30 11:30-1:00 Woolwich Town Hall, 10/8 11:30-1:00 Arrowsic Town Hall, 10/9 11:30-1:00 Phippsburg Unitarian Congregational Church. • 10/31 11:30-1:00 West Bath Town Hall, 11/5 11:30-1:00 Georgetown Historical Society

Details from the listening meetings:

● Bath Housing, about 13 residents from Bath Housing attendedpeople there. None

had generators.

● Phippsburg, issues with places cut off by flooding. Cell phone coverage is spotty.

Questions asked: What do you consider an emergency? How do you get prepared? What do you wish you had that you didn’t? Are there people you know that you can contact?

Phil Davis presented RAVE (county specific emergency alert system). Major Concerns: A lot of talk about power outages. Falling and can’t get up. Fire. Chest pain. Snow. Feeling cut off. Natural disasters, violence / shooting. How cut off Phippsburg residents feel, especially

with no phone. Ham radios, flares. Importance of having neighbors and knowing who is

present in the community. These meetings are also an opportunity for Phil to do 1/1 tutorial to set up for RAVE on resident's device.

● Woolwich: 13 attendees. Nicely facilitated with lunch. Power outage and taking care of

animals, flooding in the basement. Broken furnace, isolated. Cell phone reception is

an issue for certain pockets. Snow on rooftops, on the roadway, getting trees removed during storms. Definition of an emergency. Not being able to get down a

driveway. How do you solve it? Battery radios and neighbors are important.

Headlights, flashlights, gas meter. What they wish they had. Danny Everts, EMS, is putting

together an emergency committee. Stronger together, we can share our needs to

help each other. Isolating and the feelings that go with that. Neighbors helping

neighbors. The police chief said you’ve got to take care of each other. 12 ways to

prepare checklist (see Deirdra). CERT - community emergency response team. A

chainsaw expert needs communication where the need is. Peninsulas have valid

concerns around flooding. AARP has implied ageism. Lifelong communities of

Maine. We should be talking to a host of people.

Goal of the listening sessions - identify content and put out 500+ disaster preparedness kits.

Georgetown emergency system - email, phone, go to house, buddy up

• VTP AFCLK update

Marla & Jennifer in Woolwich 29 members, 17 clients, 12 drivers

2300 miles, volunteers have put in 148 hours.

• Photo Project -Deirdra and Michele

2 entries. Feeling that this project was not effective and did not have the outcome desired. Stopping for now.

• New Business

Deirdra and Michele met Mark Hymbaugh, new community navigator who works for SCEMA, Sagadahoc County Emergency Management Agency: He will help connect people with resources like heat, food, general assistance, although there are no additional SCEMA funds available with some of the needs. Guest at next meeting in November.

Other business and updates:

Barbara has Staples paper shredder up for grabs. Contact her if interested.

Chess tables have been moved for construction / maintenance from Elm Street Plaza.

Main Street Bath plans "Back in Bloom" photo contest next year.

Internet Frauds and Scams presentation.

Next meeting date and location: November 13, 3:30-4:30 Maine Maritime Museum

Mark Hymbaugh will be our guest speaker.