Today’s Coeur d’Alene Press reports that the North Idaho College administration has finally begun to formulate a campus evacuation plan.
The newspaper failed to ask a very obvious question: Why didn’t Christie Wood, the present Chairman of the NIC Board of Trustees, push for an adequate campus all-hazards emergency response plan long ago?
Wood is a sergeant in the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. As both a public safety officer and a member of the NIC Board of Trustees, shouldn’t she have been leading the charge long ago on this issue so relevant to the safety of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to North Idaho College?
The plan reported today is a laudable start, but evacuation planning is only one component of an all-hazards emergency response plan that also takes into consideration off-campus incidents that may adversely affect the campus environment.
As the newspaper article said, the NIC administration has sought help from Kootenai County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee. That is the right place to go for assistance in getting a comprehensive emergency response plan developed and tested and in place. One wonders why Coeur d’Alene Police Sergeant/NIC Trustee Wood didn’t think of it.
Yeah, public safety might be something a police officer would be concerned with. Of course, based on what the Trustees are pushing, it’s obvious that NIC’s primary goal is
educationsupporting the communityland acquisitioncommercial development to boost downtown Coeur d’Alene.Comment by Dan — February 26, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
If my memory serves me, Ms. Wood wrote publicly last fall that NIC already has an evacuation plan, one that was filed with the state board of education, she said. She bashed all who were questioning NIC’s emergency preparations. Obviously she was not telling the whole truth. It is clear now that Ms. Wood was stretching a tiny truth: the children’s daycare did have an evacuation plan that was filed with the state. That’s it. NO plan for evacuating the whole campus. Ms. Wood’s day job is as Public Information Officer for the CdA Police Dept., where she deals daily with full or partial truths. Shame on her as an NIC Trustee and now Chairperson, for not owning up to the school’s problem and quickly moving to deal with this safety need.
Comment by mary — February 26, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
Recently, on another blogsite Christie Wood said:that the crowd over at Opencda.com were too negative
My question is:”How can we change or improve our local gov’t without at least being a little negative”? Some criticism albeit a little negative, can be constructive when we watch our local gov’t operate.Why?Because it’s supposed to keep our local gov’t officials inline Christie and holds them accountable for their actions.
Comment by kageman — March 4, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
Kage, they frame us as “negative,” which is only their way of using verbal propaganda to imply that their position is “positive.” There is no negative or positive here, only different opinions. Our self-appointed rulers, however, feel they are always right. They cannot separate themselves personally from their organizations or decisions. Therefore, anyone who questions their policies or actions is “attacking” them.
Suggesting that elected officials act responsibly with the taxpayer’s money is not negative. Ms. Wood know this if she actually represented the people she’s paid to represent.
Comment by Dan — March 4, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
kageman,
Some officials in Coeur d’Alene have come to believe that anything less than a round of applause and a pat on the head is a negative personal attack. There’s a name for that.
Comment by Bill — March 4, 2009 @ 4:28 pm