All right, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge abilities to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

In accordance with section 841412 of the Nebraska Revised Statutes, a current copy of the Open Meetings Act is available for review and is posted on the wall of the council chambers.

Peggy, please take roll.

Mayor Nicolas.

Here's Stratman.

Here first uh we have a uh oral communications.

We're gonna welcome uh Darren Lewis to the podium.

We have a uh proclamation related to uh severe weather awareness week, which I'm gonna read, and then uh Darren's gonna give us an update on what's going on with emergency management and some things that apply to us as city council.

So I will first off here, I'll kick it off.

Whereas Severe Weather Awareness Week is an annual opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for and understanding severe weather in Nebraska and to encourage all citizens to prepare their homes, businesses, and communities better for the upcoming storm season.

And whereas Nebraska is vulnerable to a wide range of severe weather hazards, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, large hail, damaging winds, and lightning, all of which can develop rapidly and pose significant risk to life and property, and where severe weather can occur at any time, often with little to no warning, making preparedness, timely communication, and public awareness essential to reducing injuries, loss of life, and property damage.

Whereas Severe Weather Awareness Week provides an opportunity for residents, businesses, schools, and local governments to review emergency plans, assemble emergency kits, identify safe shelter locations, and practice response procedures.

And whereas the National Weather Service in partnership with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency have designated March 23rd to 27th, 2026 as Severe Weather Awareness Week in Nebraska.

Now, therefore be resolved that the City of Kearney hereby joins with the National Weather Service and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency in recognizing March 23rd to 27th, 2026 at Severe Weather Awareness Week.

All right, mouthful, thank you.

Uh Darren, thanks for coming and tell us what's been going on with emergency management and some things we need to be aware of.

Sure.

Um for the record, I'm Darren Lewis.

I'm the emergency management director for Buffalo County, the city of Kearney.

Um normally when you see me, you don't want to see me.

So I'm we still enjoy your company though.

I'm I'm glad to be able to come in front of you.

It's always a pleasure to come in front of the council and you, Mr.

Mayor and the City Manager appreciate you inviting me over.

As you stated, it is Severe Weather Awareness Week this week.

Uh so let's talk a little bit about severe weather and week and and the purpose of it is to educate the general public to get people to start uh thinking about uh severe weather preparedness.

Uh and part of that tomorrow will be the statewide tornado drill, um, roughly around 10 a.m.

Uh there's the press release on that right there.

Um that gives the general public the opportunity uh to practice uh their emergency plans for severe weather, whether it's a tornado or whether it's large hail or whatever the case may be.

Uh so we will sound the sirens in every community in Buffalo County, including the city of Kearney around 10 a.m.

Um so when those sirens go off, that's the opportunity when people should uh take action and practice their plan as it was a real event for them.

Uh so we have that.

Uh normally we would do a severe weather spotter training class, uh, which we had planned to do uh on the 26th, but due to the success of the Huskers and their tip off at the same time as when we were going to do the presentation, uh we decided that we would forego that.

Um that is an excellent here.

Here's the problem for us.

Um we were willing to put on the presentation, and we were going to do it at Pleasanton Fire uh this year because they have a new fire hole and they wanted to do it there, and that's a great opportunity for them.

Uh the problem is is we felt like we would probably be presenting to empty seats.

So we made the decision that we will forego that this year.

We will do it again next year.

For anybody who is interested and really wants to go to that those spotter talks, um, the next closest ones to us would be April 1st and April 15th in uh Adams County in Hastings and in Kearney County in Minden.

Pretty close.

So if you still want to attend those things, I encourage it.

It's great opportunity to learn more about severe weather and how to be safe and how to how to really identify those things and uh be a spotter for your own area for your own community for your own uh business or or nonprofit organization or whatever the case may be.

How many spotters do we have in Buffalo County?

Well, all there's there are a lot of spotters in Buffalo County.

Um but to be an official spotter for emergency management in Buffalo County, you have to belong to one of three organizations.

You have to be belong to either fire, uh law enforcement, or amateur radio.

So law enforcement and amateur radio pretty much take care of the surrounding Carney area for us, and we have a good cadre of individuals for for uh those spotter groups, and then the smaller communities, the local uh volunteer fire departments uh go out uh and spot for us.

They go out upon my request whenever we whenever I think that we need spotters, and I work directly with the National Weather Service to make that happen.

Uh, any time we go into a severe weather event that particularly incorporate incorporates the city of Kearney or uh the smaller communities, whether it's a tornado watch, uh a severe thunderstorm that could produce a tornado, uh our emergency operations center is open and operational.

Uh we communicate that doesn't mean that it's full of people, but it what it does mean is that I am there.

Uh usually are we have one or two dispatchers there, and we are communicating with our our spotters that that go out both on the amateur radio side and public safety side.

Um so uh we do all our operations out of there, and then if we have damage or a large-scale event due to weather or any naturally occurring uh disaster or man-made a disaster, we have the emergency operations center, which you all have a place in.

Um if you haven't been down there, I encourage you to come see me.

Uh I'm down there all the time.

Um you have a seat there, you have the ability to make decisions and be the policy group for the city of Kearney in a large-scale disaster to help determine how much money we have to spend, how much money we are how what funds we're going to incur, uh, those type of things, make that uh disaster declaration, and work with the instant commanders like our law enforcement and our fire departments that would be the instant commanders out at the scene on a large-scale event.

Um that being said, um, this is a great opportunity for preparedness.

People should have a plan.

People should uh know their safe places for shelters.