The Carbon County Chamber of Commerce hosted its September luncheon virtually on Thursday afternoon.
The first spotlight focused on emergency preparedness. Carbon County Emergency Manager Justin Needles spoke on this, stating that his job is to plan for when an emergency is bigger than normal calls, such as a pandemic or large disasters such as floods or wildfires.
Needles said that emergency management is based on planning, recovery and mitigating. He remarked that they have a myriad of plans for emergency operations and community emergencies. They like to do exercises and drills, according to Needles, such as active shooter drills with schools or businesses. They have conducted active shooter trainings with three businesses and are happy to host more.
Needles then spoke on how they widened the river in Wellington and have taken out a lot of debris to hold more flood waters. They are able to seek different grants and help determine if there is a pending disaster they can prevent.
Next up, Carbon Tourism Specialist Tina Henrie spoke on all things tourism before the time was turned to Amanda McIntosh of the HOPE Squad of Carbon, Emery and Grand Counties, which was chosen as the community spotlight for September. McIntosh stated that the squad’s overall goal is to reduce deaths by suicide in the region.
She also wished to share a big event coming in November. This event is a 5 and 10K named the Hoo Do You Run For? race. She stated that, due to the pandemic, they were forced to put the annual HOPE Walk on hold and that this event is in its place.
Finally, Frank Peczuh was happy to give all that were in virtual attendance a tour of his business, Peczuh Printing. He walked through the building and demonstrated what they do in the world of printing and stated that the business is very near to his heart, as his parents owned it before him.