At this week’s Fulshear City Council meeting, Mayor Pro-Tem J.B. Collins urged his colleagues to begin the planning process to equip the Irene Stern Community Center for use as an emergency shelter for area residents.
SHELTER PLANNING – Fulshear Mayor Pro-Tem J.B. Collins (left) proposes equipping the Irene Stern Community Center as an emergency shelter as City Secretary D. Gordon Offord (right) takes notes on the discussion.
Collins said he began thinking about the need to better equip the facility as a shelter in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Following the recent days of sub-freezing weather, he recognized the center may be needed to shelter residents at just about any time of the year.
To adequately serve as an emergency shelter, he explained, the center needs, at a minimum, an emergency generator and a supply of cots and blankets.
“It’s just a floor and chairs down there,” Collins said. “If you’re going to have people spending the night, they’ll need a place to lay their heads.”
Food and water could be provided on an as-needed basis.
Collins said he was aware of several elderly residents who did not have adequate heat during the recent cold spell, and those people could have been sheltered at the community center if it had been properly equipped to receive them.
A similar situation could occur at virtually any time, Collins said, and the city needs to be ready to assist residents needing shelter from natural or man-made disasters.
“An emergency situation could happen here at any time,” Collins stressed. “I just wanted to bring this to the attention of the council and get some additional input.”
Councilman Stephen Gill agreed the center needed to be better equipped to serve as a shelter, noting the council previously discussed the need for emergency generators.
Mayor Jamie Roberts said the city had applied for a grant to get two generators from FEMA, but was only approved for one. That generator will go to city hall.
“A generator (at the community center) would definitely be a benefit to this city. We’re scheduled to get one from FEMA, but we were turned down for the second one,” Roberts told the council. “It would be nice to have a generator up there.”
Councilman Derek Einkauf recommended the city integrate Fulshear’s emergency planning efforts with the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management, including asking for assistance with the generator.
Council members took no action, but agreed to continue seeking funding for a generator and other emergency supplies for the community center. The city will also look at funding the equipment during the upcoming budget cycle.
