Mission: As stated in the Fearrington Homeowners Association (FHA) Articles of Incorporation, one of the important purposes of the FHA is to "provide for the health, safety and welfare" of the residents of Fearrington Village. As part of this important mission, and to be in compliance with the Articles, the FHA works hard to sustain a comprehensive resident-based Health, Safety, and Security Committee (HSS) to advise the Board of Directors on policies, programs, and services that will help to keep village residents healthy and safe. In addition to its communication with Fearrington residents, the HSS Committee maintains collaborative relationships with the Chatham County Emergency Management Division and 911, Emergency Medical Services (EMS/FirstHealth), the Chatham County North Chatham Fire Department, the Chatham County Sheriff's Department, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). Over 35 residents have served on five components of the HSS committee this year. Their work and support have been invaluable and very much appreciated.
Our new central email contact address for Health, Safety, & Security communications is: hss@fearringtonfha.org.
Summary of Key Activities & Accomplishments; November 2014 to November 2015
Village Traffic & Road Safety:
- During this year, we have held meetings with NC Department of Transportation maintenance and traffic engineers, completed an eleven-page report on road and road safety issues in the village, presented those results at an open FHA board program meeting in March [Topic — Selective Safety Matters: The 15/501 Signal Light & Village Roads and the Residential KNOX-BOX® ], and posted the detailed 11-page report on the FHA web site [To access the report, see: FHA/Notices/Health, Safety & Security/Roads Safety tabs].
- During the February ice storms, HSS posted reports and advisories on the front page of the FHA web site concerning conditions on our village streets and roads and on our relatively short power outage. And advised residents of NCDOT's plowing policies, the specific 56 village streets for which the state has responsibility, and the 24 other streets for which specific service groups are responsible.
- We worked with NCDOT and All Traffic Solutions, Inc. [the speed monitor company] to support Camden Park, Inc.’s planning and monitor acquisition for their recently deployed speed monitor locations on East and West Camden.
- In early October, we deployed two new speed monitor posts with 25mph speed signs on Creekwood. Our two existing monitors will be mounted there as part of the village-wide monitor rotation cycle. We are now working to develop an integrated community report on traffic volume and speeds for all monitored streets in the village. We will be working more closely with the County Sheriff’s Department to reduce the volume of vehicles traveling at speeds beyond 15mph over the village-wide limit [especially those traveling 20 - 25mph over the 25mph limit].
- In partnership with the North Chatham Fire Department and Fearrington Cares, we presented information on the Residential KNOX-BOX® home entry system (https://goo.gl/l4JACR) and the important FILE OF LIFE (http://goo.gl/3sZNwL) during the FHA March open board meeting program, which was focused on selective safety matters. The Knox Box is designed for rapid, secure, easy entrance by emergency responders who are called to your home. We encourage residents to consider this important home safety system. The FILE OF LIFE should be in every home for easy EMT access in emergencies.
- Responses to village emergencies are provided by Chatham County Emergency Management, the North Chatham County Fire Department, First Health Ambulance Service, the County Sheriff’s Department, and other professional responders.
- In the highly unlikely event we were to ever face a situation in which professional responders would be significantly delayed in reaching us, we are working with residents and County Emergency Management to clarify policies and procedures for our own limited village response to ensure and facilitate the availability of critical help and resources for community residents until outside help could accommodate our needs.
- We have completed an inventory and updating of our emergency and first aid supplies, which had not been inventoried since 2007, and are stored in the Fearrington Cares building from which the our response team would coordinate a limited emergency response.
- We are developing guidelines for the very limited potential use of The Gathering Place (TGP) as a temporary “Emergency Information and Recovery Center.” The building is not suitable for serving as an emergency housing shelter; such emergency sheltering will be supplied by the County, which will also supply transportation to such centers for residents with verified special needs (“fragile persons”).
- Most of the “Voluntary Emergency Contact Information Forms” collected since the mid-1980s are now seriously out-of-date. Next month and going forward into next year, we will be collecting this data using a secure, encrypted on-line form, which will allow residents to easily update their information anytime and especially on an annual cycle. For those without on-line access, or who do not want to submit their data on-line, we will still have paper forms available. Digitizing such information in a secure fashion greatly simplifies the collection process, the data searching function, and the periodic updating of such important information. More on this process will be published on the web site and in the FHA Newsletter in coming months.
- We will soon have a vastly improved and better organized display of emergency and emergency preparedness information on our web site. Currently, it is fragmented across five Health, Safety & Security menu tabs (sub-tabs on the main FHA tab), where it gradually accumulated across a five year time span with insufficient attention to centralized, simplified access.
- In October, FHA and Fearrington Cares jointly purchased a sophisticated Automated External Defibrillator (AED) devise for The Gathering Place. AEDs are portable medical devices that automatically analyze and detect cardiac arrhythmias of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) patients through electrodes, and are able to produce a shock which stops the heart and allows it to return to a normal rhythm. These important medical devices are increasingly being installed in buildings frequently used by the public (such as office buildings, schools, houses of worship, restaurants, concert halls, theaters, airports, etc.) as life-saving devices that are immediately available to by-standers who happen to witness someone who collapses from Sudden Cardiac Arrest. A by-stander should immediately call 9-1-1, and the dispatcher will walk them through the use of the device and basic compression-only CPR, should it be needed. The device won’t let anyone make a mistake in using it, and the dispatcher’s instructions shield a by-stander from potential legal liability concerns. Read more about this device in the FHA November Newsletter. Fearrington Cares and FHA will be providing some basic CPR/AED classes on February 2nd 8:30 - 11:00 am and 1:00 - 3:30 pm. and February 5th 8:30 - 11:00 am and 1:00 - 3:30 pm. More details in forthcoming newsletters and on the respective websites.
