[00:00:10] Speaker A: Good morning. I'm Jackie Broach and this is first Friday with Georgetown county. Our first guest this morning is Haley Davis. Hailey is the branch manager at the Andrews Library and she is also in charge of our bookmobile. Now, Hailey, we have some exciting things to talk about today with the bookmobile, correct?
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: So tell me what's going on.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Well, we have now received a new bookmobile. We were able to procure it with a grant and it will hopefully hit the road this May.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Okay, so tell me what's special and exciting about this new bookmobile.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: The design is a bit different.
It's about 2ft longer than the last one. This is called a step van. So the shape of it's a little bit different. The previous one was a cutaway, so it's kind of like a two part shell.
We'll still have the wheelchair lift for those that have need of it, whether it be children or adults. Some people like to be able to sit on their walker and ride it up. So that helps with quite a bit. There's a bit more shelving as well. The layout's different on the interior.
We also have the capability of showing programs in the area via a tv monitor. We'll be having like a slideshow with the.
I guess like a PowerPoint. Our bookmobile librarian is kind of working on his first round of learning that. And we're setting up the mobile hotspot, which is like a cradle point on the vehicle. That way other people can also use the wifi if they are close enough by.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Wonderful. So I imagine that there are a lot of people in the county that rely on the bookmobile.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yes, we visit daycares throughout the county from Andrews to Murrell's inlet to sand pit, several in Georgetown itself in the main city area, and of course, nursing homes, assisted livings. We have a few 55 and over community stops as well. Our adult checkout is about equal to our daycare checkout.
We average anywhere from 5000 to 1200 books checked out alone. So that's quite a bit.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. So when will people see this new bookmobile hitting the streets?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Hopefully next week, which is the first week, solid week of May. We're waiting on one item to come in and then hit the road.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Okay. Wonderful. And this is something. I mean, you don't just order a bookmobile and it's here in a few weeks or a month. This. This was a long process, right?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yes, it was custom built.
My previous supervisor, Sheila Sullivan and I, we designed a lot of the color scheme, interior layout.
We kept the same old wrap as the old one, which was designed by an artist in the county. If I recall, it's been used on three bookmobiles now.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yep. So we're kind of known for that pretty canvas on the. On the truck, I guess you'd say. But the exterior, the layout of the vehicle itself, body wise, engine, would not have been done without our head mechanic at first vehicle.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And do you want to mention his name?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Chris Moore.
He did very well. And the manager out there has also been very good. Derek Aliff. But it definitely wouldn't have been built to specs without Chris's help. That also ensures that they themselves can work on it, because otherwise, it is absolutely pointless to have a vehicle that I would have to drive all the way to Myrtle beach or Charleston to get worked on, which, unfortunately, some counties do. So we made sure our guys that are mechanics can definitely work on it in house.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: That's great. So how long had we been using the old bookmoon, Bill?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Let's see. It was a 2012.
So.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: So over ten years.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Over ten years, yeah. And it definitely shows the. The wear on the body's done.
Our guys are kind of surprised the transmission didn't go out sooner on the truck. It's still running. No problems there. But the weight of the truck, because of it being fully loaded with books, makes it significantly heavier.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Okay, well, I cannot wait to see the new bookmobile out on our county roads. And I'm sure that there are lots of people around who have utilized the bookmobile who are looking forward to this upgrade as well.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're ready for it to hit the road again. Several of the daycares and several of our older folks have called, saying, when are you coming back? Because we've been off the road for about a month.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Okay. Well, Hayley, thank you so much for joining us and talking about this exciting new bookmobile with us.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: I enjoyed it.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Our next guest is Brandon Ellis. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you've met Brandon before. He is our director of emergency services and also our emergency manager. So, Brandon, we are just a month away, actually, less than a month now from the start of hurricane season. So talk with us a little bit about that. We've got some changes for this year, and we've got a four forecast, some early forecasts.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Yeah, Jackie, we've received some of the preliminary forecasts from places such as Colorado State and Accuweather, and they all indicate an above average season. Actually, an extremely active season is being forecast with upwards in excess of 20 name storms.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Colorado knows a lot about hurricanes.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: They do, believe it or not, they're a landlocked state, and they actually, they have a really good meteorological program that focuses on tropical cyclone forecasting and whatnot. So we take their forecast very seriously each year. It's usually pretty accurate. They are calling for an extremely active season, as I mentioned. Same with AccuWeather. It's still a well above average forecast. We have not received the official forecast from NOAA yet, so we're waiting on that. But we do anticipate that the NOAA forecast will follow suit with the others.
So now's the time. It's extremely critical to ensure that folks are prepared, because it only takes one storm for us to experience catastrophic damage.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: So people should start preparing now, and as part of their preparations, they should, of course, know what evacuations on they're in. But that may have changed a little this year from last year, correct?
[00:06:22] Speaker C: That's correct.
We've been partnering with the South Carolina Emergency Management division for over a year now to update the hurricane evacuation study, which was last done around 2010.
This study takes a look at everything we do related to hurricane evacuation planning, messaging, even down to our zone identifications.
Since 2010, we've had, obviously, a lot of tropical activity that's impacted our coastline. We've also had some enhancements in technology mapping and different things that have allowed us to take a more comprehensive look and in depth look at our hurricane evacuation zones.
So aside from the behavioral study and things like that, we did take a deep dive into our hurricane evacuation zones, and instead of looking at an absolute worst case scenario, we're looking more towards a most likely worst case scenario. So, you know, obviously, in an absolute worst case scenario, such as a hurricane Hugo, we can easily make the decision to evacuate everyone in the county or everyone in those three hurricane evacuation zones, whereas the reasonable, most likely worst case scenario might not require a full evacuation. So we've looked at some trends in data, some trends in real world experience. Obviously, we evacuate because of water, not because of wind. So we run from water, hide from wind. That's our little slogan. But so we reduced some of our evacuation zone a areas. It's primarily now evacuation zone a is east of highway 17.
That simple reduction reduced the evacuating population in that zone by more than 25%, which allows us to more effectively evacuate more efficiently evacuate. Hopefully, it'll give us more time on the back end of that decision making timeline. If it's only a zone a, obviously the folks that were in zone a previously are now transitioning to zone B. There's also some reductions in zone c, so all of those will be available on the Georgetown county emergency management page on the gtcounty.org website. But we want to get the word out. So we're going to be doing several public engagement opportunities. We're calling them tropical town halls. We'll go out and set up and talk to the public about these changes as well as just general hurricane preparedness information.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: And would you like to share some of that general preparedness information with us right now?
[00:09:02] Speaker C: Yeah. So we really focus our hurricane preparedness information on three tenants. It's have a plan, make a kit and know your zone.
If you take those three tenants to heart, you'll be prepared for this upcoming season and whatever it has in store for us.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. Well, Brandon, is there anything else you can think of to tell us?
[00:09:22] Speaker C: No, just, you know, don't wait until it's too late. Prepare today, don't wait until the storm's bearing down on us or is out there spinning in the ocean. And also just maintain situational awareness as we transition into, into the hurricane season on June 1. Just follow those trusted sources for information. The county's social media outlets are great platform as well as National Weather Service.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: And we'll be sharing the dates and locations and times for those tropical town halls as well.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Those roll out this week so we can get those on folks calendar and more to come. You know, more events coming down the pipe. We've updated our documentation here. Our hurricane preparedness guide, the state's hurricane guide will be coming out as well. So lots of information coming down the pipe. I'm sure that we'll be doing several different videos and outreach opportunities as well, in addition to our tropical town halls. But we just want to make sure that the public is prepared, that they're ready and hopefully we get lucky again this season.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: As you said, even if the higher than average number of storms doesn't materialize, it really just takes one.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: That's all it does. And the recipe is on the table for a very active season this year. We're going to be ready and we want the public to be ready as well.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. If you want to go directly to the emergency management webpage that is gtcounty.org. Gcemd. Did I say that right?
[00:10:51] Speaker C: That's correct.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: Always check out our social media as well as the emergency management department's social media.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: Right. Our social media handle isMD on all your major social media outlets and we try to provide a little more information during hurricane season, aside from our static information that we provide year round.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Great, Brandon, thank you so much. I'm sure we'll be talking to you again before the season is over.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: All right, thank you, Jackie.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Our next guest is Ray. Funny. Ray is the director of our public services department, which includes public work works. And we are talking today with Ray about national Public Works Week that occurs every year in May. So, Ray, tell us about National Public Works Week, why that's important and what we're doing as part of our celebrations.
[00:11:39] Speaker D: National Public Works Week is very important to us here in Georgetown. It gives us an opportunity to recognize our employees who are considered to be essential employees for the county of Georgetown.
Men and women, they work real hard annually, and we want to take a few minutes to express our appreciation for the work that they do for us on a daily basis. This year, national Public Works week is the third week in May. And this year, like other years, we are hosting the regional Backhoe Rodeo on Thursday, May 23 at 11:00 a.m. At the landfill facility. We happen to be the host for the Lowcountry branch of the American Public Works association.
And we inviting our friends from the adjoining municipalities and counties such as Orey and Williamsboro county and Charleston and Buford and Clarendon and many, many others.
We have a great time.
I've been told that we have the best backyard rodeo in the state of South Carolina.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: High praise.
[00:12:57] Speaker D: Yes, indeed. We work real hard. We have a team of ladies and men working real hard right now planning for this event, and we hope that we'll have another great opportunity to recognize our employees.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Now, for people who have not seen the backhoe rodeo, I know that when I came to my first one, it was not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting something a little, I don't know, lassos and stuff. But tell us what the backhoe rodeo entails.
[00:13:26] Speaker D: Well, thank you for asking, Jackie. The backhoe rodeo is an opportunity for skill operators to compete against other skill operators in all kinds of maneuvering of Abaco. Using Abaco. Now, Abaco is a utility piece of equipment in our business. It is the bread and butter piece of equipment that we use to do all of the daily maintenance of our roadways and drainageways and other infrastructure that we have in our inventory. But the backhoe, you need to be at this competition. You need to be skilled to be able to pick up a piece of gadget or widget and move it from point a to b and without having. And you also have time in the maneuvering of the game.
We are very fortunate here in Georgetown to have several winners of the competition locally and also on the state level as well. And so we are very proud to have Georgetown county represented in this competition. The competition is not for the Novus, the beginner operator, because it's very skilled, it requires a lot of skill, and it's time, and you got a lot of folks watching you, and that makes up very difficult for folks to perform when they have others watching you doing what you do.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: I've seen them have to do things like take the big bucket of that backhoe and use that to pour water into the very narrow opening of, like, a soda bottle or something like that. It's crazy, the things that they asked them to do.
[00:15:10] Speaker D: Yes, every year we have all kinds of inventive ideas and games that our. We have a team of judges that come around to our area once a year from Charleston. I think they are based on the charleston, and they come up and dream of all kinds of new ideas. So last year's game is totally different from this year's game because we want everybody to be refreshed and not having practiced what we did last year and become real good at it. So we have new ideas. So everyone has a fighting chance at this year's event to be competitive. If you are an opera and you do it on a regular basis, and you have finesse of operating the levers that comes with a backhoe, that's all it takes is for you to be comfortable with that machine and be able to do the things that's required of you. And safety is always important. We certainly have our safety judge there to make sure that the environment that we compete is a safe environment for the participants and the spectators as well.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: So one of the things that I have heard you say many times over the years is that publix works employees are first responders. Now, a lot of people wouldn't think about that. You know, you think of first responders as police officers and firefighters. So tell me about this. Tell me why we also count public works employees.
[00:16:37] Speaker D: There's a lot of debate about public works employees being first responders.
When the sheriff or EMs has a downtree, who do they call? They call public works. If there's an aircraft that we've had several in these areas that came down unexpectedly and needed some assistance, they call popperworks because we have the tools and the skill sets to assist the first respondents to do the things that's necessary to save lives or to. To do investigative work. So our employees are considered, in my humble opinion, to be first respondents and help with safety and preservation of those lives that we could. So there's a lot of debate nationally about Pablo Rocks employees being first responded. But in my humble way, we are. We are called upon when the need arises.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: And as we are entering hurricane season, which we just spoke with Brandon about, I mean, they're also among the first people who are out there when the storm clears and we're assessing damage and starting to make repairs and things. Correct?
[00:17:50] Speaker D: Absolutely. Our employees, all of our entire staff, all the divisions, we become essential employees when there's impending hurricane or there's a independent event that's coming to Georgetown, which means we need to be ready to restore this community back to some level of normalcy and as quickly as possible. That's very important for us to be held responsible for, but we take it very seriously. Just last week, we had a training session with our hired gun, so to speak. We hired an engineering firm to help us with more monitoring the activities that we are performing along. Or do we bring in other contractors who are experts in helping counties and communities restore themselves when there's an event? So we get trained every year with the expert. We come together and learn what the new rules from FAA, I'm sorry, FEMA, or any other governmental agencies that would help us with reimbursements. Sometimes there are events that doesn't reach the level of reimbursement. So therefore, Georgetown county employees need to be ready and prepared to do whatever's necessary to restore Georgetown county to some level of normalcy. My job as the director of public services goes away when there's an emergency. I don't. That's not my job anymore. I'm now the chief operating officer for the Eocene.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:19:21] Speaker D: Which means my role has changed.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:25] Speaker D: And everyone else's role in our organization changes at that time to do whatever is necessary to help Georgetown county.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: We certainly do appreciate our public work staff, and we are looking forward to celebrating them later this month. Before you go, I do want to ask you about one more thing. We got a little bit of good news recently. Do you want to tell me about that?
[00:19:45] Speaker D: Yes, Jackie, thanks for asking. Georgetown county, we are a small county agency, but we have a big heart.
Back in 2011, we became the second agency in the state of South Carolina to become accredited.
Funny you ask. What is accreditation? Well, accreditation is that your organization has met the rigor that's required to be an efficient and efficient, effective organization.
There are 38 chapters of everything from HR to project management, to solid waves management, to you name it. Anything that we do, we have to demonstrate that we have all of the policies and the procedures in place to help us to be effective and efficient.
These are not just policies and procedures that's on the shelf. We have to implement them on a daily basis. We need to demonstrate to the evaluators that we have, in fact, used these policies. We need to demonstrate to show them that, oh, here's a meeting that we discussed the ethics that you guys purported to be living by. Here's the meeting that you've trained your people about ethics.
We have to be able to demonstrate we have an organizational chart, that we have leaders, we have different positions. It's just not putting things on paper, but we have to demonstrate that we do the things that we are prescribing. And it's wonderful that our staff members have been able to again, work so hard to be re accredited. I'm very ecstatic about it, and I'm looking forward to having a formal presentation to county council next month with some member of APW national office to be represented here in Georgetown as well.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Wonderful. Wonderful.
[00:21:49] Speaker D: Yes, ma'am.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Well, we look forward to that and I congratulate you, Ray, great job.
[00:21:53] Speaker D: Thank you very much. We keep trying, Jackie, and you're succeeding. Thank you very much.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: That's it for first Friday with Georgetown county. Thank you for joining us. Before we go, I do want to highlight a few dates that may be of interest. On May 4, that's a Saturday, the Friends of the Georgetown Library will be at the growers market. From 09:00 a.m. To 01:00 p.m. They will be collecting books for their summer book sale. Proceeds from that benefit children's programs at the Georgetown Library. They will be collecting gently used books, DVD's, puzzles, and other items that they can sell. On May 11, Georgetown county parks and Recreation will bring back their annual take a kid fishing event that will take place from 08:00 a.m. To 11:00 a.m. At eight Oaks park. The first hour is going to be for individuals, both children and adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities. The rest of the program will be for anybody who wants to come out. They will have people on site site to assist you if you haven't been fishing before. So come on out. Bring your kids, your grandkids. They will have equipment to get you set up and anything else that you may need. It's going to be a great, fun event around the pond at eight Oaks park on May 14. Georgetown County Council will have a budget workshop that will take place in county council chambers at 04:00 p.m. And lead right into their regular meeting at 05:30 p.m.
A couple days later, on May 6, the Southern Georgetown Library is going to host a free immigration law talk that will take place from five to 06:00 p.m. And last but not least, on May 23 at the Walkamal library, the city stage theater will host a free professional production of the last stop on Market street. That should be a fun event for kids of all ages. And again, it's completely free. Thank you again for joining us. You can find more events and information on our
[email protected]. Dot.
