Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit

• Last year was a very productive year for the VHRU. Our membership has increased and we are more involved with local police agencies in Southern Nevada.

The Board of Directors and the Core Leaders want to thank all the members for their support during the past year.

• In late December a meeting was held in Carson City with the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Emergency Management Division to discuss our 2008 budget. The meeting went very well and funding was approved. Additional funding was granted to purchase our new hand held radios and repeaters that we will need to communicate in Mesquite, Pahrump and Laughlin. This project is under way and we hope to have a progress report at our February meeting.

• Two years ago, the Core Leaders agreed to start a Holiday program to donate money to families in need. This year we assisted families in Pahrump, Mesquite, Laughlin, Vegas and added Henderson.  Overall it was a great feeling to help families during the holiday season. The money comes from your dues and some donations made during the year.

• The VHRU website has been update with a new page, “Honorary Lifetime Member”. Some images have been uploaded and the balance will be completed by the next meeting.

1. Sheriff Gillespie and Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn.
2. Chief Perkins and Deputy Chief White, Henderson PD.
3. Lt. Smitley and Sgt. Shalhoob, Metro Laughlin

Invitations have been sent to Chief Frank Siracusa and Deputy Chief Kamala Carmazzi, Department of Public Safety, Emergency Management Division to attend one of our meetings in the future. They will be presented with a certificate and added to the roles of our Honorary Members.

• Our Squad Leader Frank McCabe has been attending class to be certified as a CPR trainer. Once he has completed the course we will begin CPR training to all who wish to attend. Elite Security made the donation to cover the cost of the training and Frank’s time. Thank you Frank for taking the time to attend this course.

• The City of Henderson has recently purchased an “All Call System” with grant funding. We are in the process of setting up a All Call System” for the VHRU. Chief Perkins of the Henderson PD has approved the VHRU to be included in this system. The system will have your home and cell numbers and e-mail address. Authorized members can call into the system or through access into the City of Henderson’s network, dictate a message and it will call everyone on the list and keep calling until it receives and answer. In addition, it will have the capabilities in the near future to send an e-mail at the same time. Once the data has been uploaded, we will do a test message to all.

•  The first meeting of the Laughlin River Run was held.  Metro PD is looking for 25 VHRU volunteers to assist. Hotels and meals will be included once again. Metro unmarked vehicles will be used by our people during the Run, which is scheduled from 4/23/08 to 4/27/08. Members who volunteer and wish to drive a Metro vehicle during the Run must attend Metro’s driver training program at the Las Vegas Speedway. Dates of training to be announced once we know the number of volunteers. 

• We are planning a mock exercise at the Boulder City airport. We are in the process of discussing our exercise plan with the airport authorities. We will invite the Boulder City PD to participate, if they wish. After the exercise, we will have a BBQ at the Hemenway Park (Same location as last year). More details on this project at the next meeting.

• Las Vegas Metro’s Fingerprint Bureau project is back on the table for discussion. I spoke yesterday to the Director and the assignment for those interested will be at the front entrance widow assisting civilians. The tour will be, Monday to Friday 0800 x 1600.  At this point we are not sure if we will do the same tours as the Fusion Center volunteers. At the Fusion Center members work two four hour shifts per day. We will need at a minimum 10 volunteers with some back up volunteers who could be available to fill in when needed. We will put the list together and wait for a date for training from Metro. We expect this to occur in the next few weeks.

• Lt Graham from the Metro Downtown Area Command contacted the VHRU requested assistance with their new downtown surveillance camera project. Volunteers would man a desk and watch CCTV cameras located near Freemont Street and report anything suspicious. Additional duties would involve some light clerical work at the same office, keeping up reports on suspicious activity etc. More on this request in the next few months.

• We will begin producing the new VHRU ID Cards next month. The ID cards will be made for those members who have been waiting for some time. Our present ID card expires on 12/31/08. If possible, we may have those new cards done in time to be reissued before the end of the year.

• At our February meeting information was passed out to all that attended on our new Radio Communication system.  We have been accepted and authorized to use the Clark County Mutual Aid Network. There is no cost to us to be on this network, which will be state wide in the very near future.  The Core Leaders plan on testing their radios twice a month. A protocol on how to communicate on the Clark County frequencies will be drafted for our use. These protocols will be distributed to all the Core Leaders and will be given to those members who will eventually have a radio assigned. We must remember that others are monitoring our frequency and we have to be brief in our conversations.

This week, we purchased 62 hand held radios, 4 mobile units and 4 base stations with our special Grant award from the State of Nevada. The radios will be delivered by the beginning of next week. The new radios will be programmed by Clark County and will be ready for use on their network.

• Finally we have the ID card system up and running. Tonight we will be issuing the new ID card to those members who have no ID card since joining the VHRU.  Thank you for your patience and the balance of the new ID cards will be distributed at the end of this year when our existing ID cards expire. Each year after, once a member pays his/her dues, a new card will be issued. 

• Lieutenant Tom Smitley, Metro PD Laughlin Sub Station will be retiring on 3/13/08. We will miss him and his dedication and his confidence in allowing the VHRU to assist during the last three years of the River Run. It is not clear who will be replacing Tom. We wish Tom all the best in his retirement.

Update on the River Run:  We now have 17 members from Vegas going down to assist and 14 from Laughlin and Arizona. Hotel rooms and meals will be supplied by Metro. Metro’s Driver Training class will host 10 of our members at the Las Vegas Speedway. Once they complete this one day course, they will be authorized to drive Metro unmarked vehicles during the Run.

• St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. The VHRU will be submitting our request to obtain a permit to march in the Parade in the City of Henderson. Once we have the permit, an e-mail will b sent with the details on where we will meet etc.

• Las Vegas Metro has again approached our organization for volunteer help. The Downtown Area Command has a pilot project using a CCTV camera near Freemont Street to observe and notify Patrol Officers if criminal activity is observed.

A meeting was held with the Captain of the Command and the Lieutenant that is assigned to this project.  They also want us to have the capabilities of accessing Scope (running criminal checks). The Captain will be speaking with the Sheriff to get his blessing on using our existing background check to allow our members to participate.  We have (9) members who wished to help and we can use more once this is up and running.

• The Fusion Center is entering its 30th week of volunteer coverage by the VHRU. We have donated close to 1200 hrs on this project. The tours are 4 hrs, either 0800 x 1200 or 1200 x 1600, Monday to Friday. We can use more volunteers if anyone is interested. Please let your Team or Squad leader know if you wish to assist.

• So far this year we have collected dues from over 200 members. Thank you to all those who have paid their dues early. There are still a few members who have not paid and we are in the process of trying to collect their dues.

• We are always looking for more members to join the VHRU. If you have any colleagues that are from law enforcement, we ask you to solicit them to join us. The more members we have, the better and stronger the organization becomes. We stand at 247 active members today. Over the past few years we lost close to 60 members, who have either left, passed away or moved out of state.

• At our March General Membership Meeting we had the honor of having as our guest speaker, Honorable Judge Donald Mosley, Department Fourteen, Eight Judicial District Court. Judge Mosley’s biography was distributed at the General Meeting.

Judge Mosley will give us an over view of the court system in Clark County.

• Pahrump Team Leader, Ken Godwin will be stepping down as Team Leader due to a family medical emergency. Ken will remain a member and will be moving back to Oklahoma. Squad Leader Frank Maurizio will take over the Pahrump group as their new Team Leader.  Paul Wagner has agreed to take the Squad Leader position and JJ Lynch will replace Ross Sloan as the second Pahrump Squad Leader. Ross will be stepping down but will remain active in the organization. Our thanks to Ken Godwin and Ross Sloan for their years of service as the Leaders in Pahrump.

• Chief Joe Forte of the North Las Vegas PD spoke briefly a with Ted Farace who expressed an interest in having the VHRU become more involved with his department. Chief Forte was just appointed the new Chief of the North Las Vegas PD. Chief Forte wants to set up a meeting in the near future to discuss our involvement with his department. This is good news, Chief Forte has always been very positive on the VHRU and our mission. He also wants Ted Farace, the president of the VHRU to address the North Las Vegas City Council and talk about our organization to have them better understand how we can help the citizens of North Las Vegas. The real issue is to convince the council to give us the same protection (liability and workers comp) we have with the State, Metro and Henderson PD.

• A thank you to Boulder City member, Ed Horvath who has reserved the picnic area at Hemeway Park for Wednesday, May 14th. We are planning an exercise at the Boulder City Airport, followed by a BBQ. Charlie Licata will be organization a picnic committee to purchase the food etc. that we will need for the 14th.

Christian Magrabi, Boulder City Squad Leader and Boulder City member, Joan Sibrava met with officials at the  Boulder City Airport who expressed an interest in participating. The next step will be to meet with Police Chief Finn to discuss his department’s involvement.

• A mock exercise was held in Laughlin in March with the Las Vegas Metro PD. The exercise was called, “Active Shooter”. The exercise required only a few volunteers and our organization was not participating as a group, only the Laughlin Team. Thanks to Squad Leaders Bob Boerner and Bob Petrusek for their leadership roles during this exercise.

• Squad Leader Frank McCabe has completed his classes with the Heart Association and is ready to start certifying our members in CPR. Frank Bruton has reviewed the agreement with the Heart Association and it was submitted. The Heart Association requires we submit a copy of the insurance from the IAC where we will hold training. This has been done and we will begin training in the near future.

• On Friday, March 21st, a representative for the State of Nevada Emergency Management Division visited Ted Farace to review our books and records. Everything was in order and no issues surfaced.

Our new MOU with the State of Nevada was presented to Mr. Farace for his signature and also the paper work for our 2007/08 grant funding. Submission of our bills from October 1, to March 30th (two quarters) will be submitted for reimbursement. At this time the amount outstanding is close to $11,000.

• Update on the St Patrick’s parade. We had 13 members in attendance. Not very good for an organization with close to 250 members. We need to do more next year to get a better attendance. We will try to get our permit for next year’s parade as soon as possible.  We hope we can turn out close to 50 next year.

• The River Run volunteers numbering 32 are ready to participate on April 23rd (16 from Laughlin Team and 16 from Vegas, including Pahrump and Mesquite members).

Our hotel rooms are booked and we will be picking up at least 12 plain Metro vehicles to use while in Laughlin. Ten of our members will be attending the Metro Driver training class on Monday, March 31st. This is a requirement in order to drive their police vehicles.

• Last week a meeting was held with Lt. Menger of Metro’s Emergency Management Unit. He was very receptive to our offer to help. He wanted some documentation from the VHRU, such as a copy of our MOU with Metro, anyone who has been certified in ICS, a list of where our volunteers are assigned within Metro. A meeting was set up with his coordinator, the person responsible for organizing the Metro Homeland Security mock exercises.

• It was suggested by President Ted Farace to establishment of a “Linda Farace Memorial Scholarship Fund”. This fund will assist children, grandchildren, including step children of members in good standing with their education. Linda passed away back in November and was the person behind the scenes doing all the administrative work for the VHRU. Linda is responsible for coining our name, the Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit. The funds for this program will be donated by Ted Farace in her honor. The members of the Core Leadership support this idea and Frank Bruton has talked with the IRS. We have sent them documentation to get their approval to have this as part of our 501(c) (3) status. If approved, information will be mailed out to everyone outlining the guidelines and the requirements to submit for a cash awards annually. A new webpage will be added to the VHRU site in the near future.

• Please welcome Sergeant Cindy Rodriguez, Las Vegas Metro PD, Down Town Area Command who has the responsibility of the “COP” program, which includes the Surveillance Unit. Sergeant Rodriguez will give us an overview of the programs she is working on and how we may assist.

As you heard the Downtown Area Command Surveillance Program has been underway for two weeks. We have some volunteers but are looking for more to help fill the tours. This assignment runs Monday to Friday (4 hour shifts) starting at 0600 x 1000, 1000x 1400 and 1400 x 1800. Please see me for more details and if you can help out by giving 4 hours of your time during the week

• A suggestion was made by Boulder City Core Leader, Christian Magrabi to have a monthly list of VHRU members that are available in case we are activated. Each Squad will identify which members are available by month. In the event we are called, we will have a starting point of how many members are able to respond. We will have a chart at the next meeting where your squad will be identified. We ask you to add your name on the list by month. We realize that many of us leave for the summer and it would be good to know exactly how many members we can count on during that period.

• A meeting was held with Lt, Menger, Las Vegas Metro, Emergency Management Unit to discuss how the VHRU could assist his unit. Also attending this meeting was, Sharon Mikalonis, Executive Development Specialist, Homeland Security Management. Both seemed very interested in utilizing the VHRU. One immediate request way made to assist with the upcoming Police Memorial Run. This run involves all active Police Officers from across the county who race from Las Vegas to Tonopah and then on the Reno. Metro needs the VHRU to operate their marked police cruisers to assist these runners by offering transportation back to their vehicles at the point they started. Metro is responsible up to Tonopah, other police agencies take over up to Reno.

The Run starts on May 1st to May 3rd. There isn’t enough time to get volunteers certified by Metro. We would need as many of the members who have been certified by Metro to assist. 

They also indicated they are in the planning stage of putting together exercises for the next three years and will include the VHRU in some part of these future plans.

• Today Ted Farace met with Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn to give him and update on the progress of the VHRU and seek his cooperation with a number of issues. One issue we discussed is utilizing Metro’s computers to do run both, Scope and Triple I searches. This capability we greatly enhance our position assisting with the Down-town Surveillance program running names and license plates. It was approved by Sheriff Flynn.

• Laughlin River Run Update:

The River Run was a great success for both Metro and the VHRU. We were able to put in service conducting surveillance, 12 plain Metro vehicles with teams of two in each vehicle.

A number of outstanding events took place. One team from Laughlin, John Giannapulos and Bernie Green witnessed a theft and followed the subjects. They contacted our Command Post and Metro was called and responded to make the arrests.  On the first night, Metro distributed a flyer, which indicated an individual on Federal Parole was wanted by Metro for questioning.  Dave Michel and Dick Cancellier from Vegas spotted the individual on the last night of the Run.  Metro was called and took this individual into their custody. Great work by our two teams and the other teams that help stem the theft of motorcycles, a well done. Only one (1) Motorcycle was reported stolen. This has been the lowest year on thefts since the Run started over 10 years ago.

• Squad Leader Christian Magrabi and Ted Farace met recently with Police Chief Finn and Fire Chief Nicholson from Boulder City. Chief Nicholson is a newly appointed Fire Chief and has not had the time to formulate an exercise. Both agreed to send representatives to observe our mock exercise. The intent of our exercise is testing the organizational skills and communication capabilities with our new radios. The scenario is a plane crash on the Boulder Creek Golf Course, just short of the runway at the Boulder City Airport. Members will be assigned new radios and sent out in the field to a specific assignment. We are planning this exercise to kick off around 10 am, so please be ready to respond when you get the call. The more members we have the better. A written summary of the exercise will be sent to the State, which helps us maintain our grant funding and could increase what we receive next year.

Immediately following the exercise we will meet at the Hemeway Park for a BBQ. Maps etc. of the area and the scenario will be handed to those responding on May 14th at the staging area, which will be the  Boulder Creek Gold Course

• A discussion was held with the Laughlin Squad Leaders about forming a Mojave County Arizona Team. It was agreed that Ben Bacchi from Bullhead City would become the new Squad Leader. We have a number of members from Arizona that come across into Laughlin to help and it makes sense to form this new team.

• On May 14th we held our mock exercise in Boulder City. A total of 55 members responded and participated. We used the VHRU trailer as the Command Center dispatching members to their various assignments upon arrival at the staging area. Our new radio system was used and the reception and transmission was excellent. Most teams were moved at least twice to keep their interest and everyone was advised continushlily of the status of the exercise over our radios. The exercise lasted about 2 hours to complete. After the exercise was completed, we all went to the Hemingway Park and enjoyed a great BBQ. Thanks to Charlie Licata, Noel Inzerille and Bob Moran for their help in taking care of the food and the cooking.

The Boulder City Police Department didn’t participate however, Chief Finn expressed his regrets for not participating but assued us he would hold another exercise in Boulder City under the Police leadership in conjunction with the VHRU.

• The VHRU contacted the IRS which acknowledged our request to undertake a Linda Farace Memorial Scholarship program. The fund will make available grants totaling $5,000 annually to be awarded to members in good standing for 2 years. Members who have a child, grandchild, step child attending college are elligable. We now will move forward with this program and every member will receive information describing the program and how to apply. We have added a new web page to our VHRU site outlining the program and a link to an application to apply for an award.

• The Laughlin Team is working on obtaining a permit to have an Adopt-A-Highway sign placed in Laughlin for the “Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit, Laughlin Team”. It will be the responsibility of the Laughlin Team to do the road clean up every quarter, similar to the Las Vegas program.

• A meeting was held with Chief Forte and his Deputy to discuss how the VHRU can assist the North Las Vegas Police Department. It was recommended that Ted Farace make a presentation before the North Las Vegas City Council describing the VHRU in order to gain their support. We will need to draft another MOU and get the City of North Las Vegas to give us the necessary liability and workers compensation coverage. The presentation should help achieve this.

• One of our members, Ray Mauss, a retired LAPD officer recently gave a presentation at the Metro Downtown Area Command to the outgoing Metro patrol officers. Ray spoke about various police initiatives such as Narcotics, Vice and Fraud. The presentation was well received. Thanks to Ray for giving his time.

• We are planning another VHRU mock exercise in Mesquite in the fall.  Don Woodmancy and Ted Farace are hoping to meet with Chief Law to discuss Mesquite PD involvement. The exercise would take place on October 28th.

Don Woodmancy and Ted Farace met in Mesquite with the General Sales Manager of the Casablanca Hotel Casino. The purpose was to obtain his support in helping the VHRU stay at one of their properties at a discount rate during the exercise.

On October 28th we will hold the exercise in the morning for about two hours.

• Squad Leader Frank McCabe will be conducting CPR training in the next couple of weeks. Frank will be holding 2 classes each day on a Saturday or a Sunday. He is only allowed to train 6 people at a time. We plan on starting with the Core Leaders and then to open this program to all members.  We suggest that everyone take this class, which takes about 4 hours.

• Metro PD contacted the VHRU again and invited our members to participate in their Driver Training Program, which is held at the Las Vegas Speedway. We had 7 more VHRU members attend this all day class.

• Secretary, Bob Abrams has tendered his resignation as a Board Member effective August 1st. Bob is working full time and feels he can’t devote as much time to the organization as he would like. Bob will remain active in the VHRU assigned to a Squad. We thank Bob for his help and dedication to the organization.

The Core Leaders have agreed that Don Woodmancy, Mesquite Team Leader will be the new Secretary of the Board.  Don is presently doing all the correspondence on our background checks and reaching out to various agencies to introduce the VHRU.  Please welcome Don in his new role.

• Squad Leader Bill Dwyer informed the Board that he is attending classes at night and working during the day and can’t fulfill his role as the South West Squad A Leader. The Core Leadership has selected John Villano as the new Squad Leader. John has accepted this assignment.

• Our planned exercise in October in Mesquite is moving forward. The Chief has agreed to send a representative to observe Lieutenant Shawn Charles who has the responsibility for Emergency Management. The Chief explained that his department is not ready to conduct a full exercise in October. Copies of all our mock exercises were mailed to the Chief last week for his review.

• There are a number of our members, including the President that have lost a loved one. After speaking with other members in the same situation, it was decided to organize a group called, “Members without Spouses” or MWS. This would include those members who are single or divorced. The goal is to set aside one evening a month to have a dinner as a group, to socialize and discuss issues of  common interest and concern.

• On July 9, Ted Farace attended the kickoff meeting of Metro’s New Years Eve Committee. They are again asking the VHRU to supply 2 volunteers at each substation to perform building security. We have done this for the past three years and just the other day Sheriff Gillespie thanked the VHRU for our help at this event.

• Treasurer Frank Bruton is exploring the cost of obtaining a Life Insurance policy for the VHRU members. Each member will be insured but must be a member in good standing for at least 2 years to qualify for the benefit. More on this when Frank gets a quote on the cost. Consideration could be given to include all the other police associations in Southern Nevada, if they wished to participate.

• Last week President Ted Farace had the opportunity to go on Channel 30 in Pahrump to discuss the VHRU. This was a Q and A format; where people can call in with questions. The session lasted about a ½ hour and received a number of calls.

• VHRU Administrator Frank McCabe and Ted Farace will start researching purchasing a new trailer along with the necessary equipment. The existing trailer will be moved to Laughlin to be used by the Laughlin Team when needed.

• The All Call System in Henderson is up and running. All our information has been uploaded into their database. The system will call everyone in the VHRU with a notification about an event or an upcoming meeting. Once a message is sent to the computer, either by e-mail or phone, it will automatically dial everyone’s home and cell number. We will be testing this very soon.

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by President Ted Farace and Chief Joseph Forti, North Las Vegas PD.

In the MOU if a VHRU member is asked to work inside one of their facilities, North Las Vegas PD can print that individual and do their own background check. The meeting went extremely well and the Chief has agreed to include the VHRU in a future exercise with his department in 2009.

• In late August, South West Team Leader, Steve Dawson tendered his resignation as a Team Leader.  Steve is involved as the Coordinator of the Henderson PD Citizens Corp and this position has taken a lot of Steve’s time making it hard to fulfill his role as Team Leader.  Steve will remain an active member. Thank you Steve for your of service to the VHRU.

Peter Griffiths has been appointed the new Team Leader. Please welcome Peter in his new role. Dick Cancellier has agreed to fill the South West Squad Leader position. Thank you Dick for stepping up to take on this responsibility.

• Next month on 9/11 will be the 7th year anniversary of the attack on our country. The New York Ten 13 Police Organization will be sponsoring a short Memorial Service at the Metro Police Memorial Park on Cheyenne, starting at 10 am. Everyone is invited to attend and after the service, join that club for a hot buffet lunch at Carmines Restaurant on Durango. It would be nice to see many members from the VHRU attend.

• Ted Farace met with the Emergency Manager in Henderson last week to review the process of using their “All Call System”. All our data has been uploaded, except some of the most recent members.  The system will call everyone’s home, cell and send an e-mail message at the same time regarding an official VHRU notification. We may use this to notify everyone about our monthly meetings or activations.

• We still need some volunteers to assist Metro on New Years Eve. Peter Griffiths, Charlie Licata and Paul Wagner have offered to attend any future Metro meetings on this event representing the VHRU.  Please let the Board know if you can assist with Substation security.

• The first CPR class was a great success. Frank McCabe trained 11 members and the Laughlin team has trained 7. Laughlin used the CPR Trainer from the Riverside Hotel Security Department.  Frank has agreed to do the next training on Saturday, September 20th.  Frank can now handle 18 members each day divided into 3 classes 6.  

The VHRU will consider purchasing two Defibulators and keep one in Las Vegas and one in Laughlin.

• Team Leader Joel Barez suggested that Ted Farace should meet with the Chief of Police in Kingman Arizona to discuss the VHRU Mojave Arizona Team assisting that agency. A letter was sent to the chief  requesting a meeting.

• Metro Lt. Monohan has agreed to place a new computer at the front desk of the Fusion Center so we can use our time productively. The new coordinator of this program is Squad Leader Lou Marcano. The Board wants to thank Lou for helping out with this program.

• Ted Farace and members from the Pahrump team attended the Pahrump Emergency Management meeting.  We need to continue to build relationships in Pahrump and Nye County.  We are seeking membership on this committee. A Pahrump member will represent the VHRU at future meetings.

• After a number of bids, a company has been chosen to custom- make our new VHRU trailer. The order was placed last week and we expect our new trailer to be delivered by October 20th. This is perfect timing for the upcoming mock exercise in Mesquite. Our original trailer has been transferred to our Laughlin Team.

• A total of eight applications were received for consideration of an award of $1,000 from the Linda Farace Memorial Scholarship Fund. The following five individuals were selected by drawing lots:
  
  
  • Alicia Trimboli, member Pete Trimboli
  • Monelle Beal, member Robert Day
  • Jenna McLeod, member Paul Fava
  • Brandon Marcano, member Lou Marcano
  • Breanna Cape, member Gene Altobella

A check for $1,000 was sent to the College or University for the above individuals.  

• The Pahrump Emergency Management Meeting has been scheduled for November 19th.. Pahrump Squad Leader, Jim Lynch has agreed to represent the VHRU at that meeting.  We are hoping that we can become a permanent part of this committee. JJ Lynch will brief the Core members in November after attending the meeting.
  
  
• The 911 Memorial Ceremony held by the New York Ten 13 Club was attended by 85 individuals. The VHRU was represented but we expected more members to attend. At the Metro service later in the evening the attendance was very low. There were only 18 individuals present. Next year we will try harder to get more people to come out, especially for the Metro service to show our support.

• The Laughlin Adopt-A-Highway program was approved. We are waiting for the sign to be placed on Needles Highway.

Pahrump Squad Leader, Paul Wagner has contacted the DOT regarding a VHRU sign to be placed on Rt. 160 leading into Pahrump. Ted Farace mailed the DOT documentation about the VHRU for consideration for another Adopt-A-Highway sign.

• On September 15th ,   4 more VHRU members attended a Metro class on accessing NCIC and SCOPE. These individuals will be working at the Downtown Area Command on the Surveillance program. Another class has been scheduled for October 17th. We still need more volunteers for this program.

• Don Woodmancy and Ted Farace met with Sue Conley the Chief Executive Officer of the Mesa View Regional Hospital in Mesquite. The purpose of the meeting was to brief her on our upcoming mock exercise and gain her permission to place some of our VHRU members outside the hospital. Don Woodmancy will provide a VHRU radio to Ms Conley so she can monitor our activities during our exercise.

An e-mail will be sent to all members with instructions where to report for the exercise if you are driving up on Tuesday morning. The  exercise is scheduled for 10 am.

• On  September 20 we had 15 more VHRU members attend the CPR class and certify in CPR. We are planning for another class on  October 18th. The class can accomodate18 members.  There will be three classes during that day, 8:15, 10:45 and 13:15.

• The 2009 State ID cards are ready to be mailed to our members once they pay their 2009 dues. The Board requests you to send in your dues check as soon as possible.
  
  
• Metro has asked for help with the “Homeless Stand Down” event at Cashman Center on October 8, 2008.  The VHRU deployed 17 members to assist at various functions during this event. Over 2500 homeless individuals came to seek help. The event lasted 8 hours.

• The Laughlin Squad Leaders and Ted Farace met with Chief DeVires of the Kingman Arizona Police Department. The Chief was very interested in having the VHRU Mojave Team assist his department. Future meetings will be scheduled to consider drafting an MOU with that Department.  If this comes to pass, we will need to consider forming a not-for profit Arizona Corporation to seek funding from the Arizona Emergency Management Division.
  
  
• Last week we lost Jim Schuyler. He died as a result of Cancer one week after being diagnosed. There were no services held at Jim’s request. Treasurer Frank Bruton and Ted Farace went to his home and paid our respects representing all the members of the VHRU.
  
  
• The VHRU received two donations, one from Wells Fargo Bank ($300.00). Thanks to Squad Leader Joe Zogbi and the other from Aetna Insurance ($300.00) thanks to Frank Bruton. 

• There was no General Membership Meeting in October and In its place was the Mock Exercise in Mesquite. A total of 51 members responded and participated and the exercise went extremely well. Our radios worked better than expected. We now know where to stage and everyone who participated got to know a little about Mesquite.  This exercise was the smoothest we have held. We believe we now have this down to a science and future exercises will be run the same way. A total of 51 individuals participated, which included a few Mesquite Police Department Volunteers.

Chief Douglas Law came to our Command Trailer after the exercise and spent some time discussing our organization and agreed to consider entering into a MOU with the VHRU. The necessary paperwork was mailed to him for his review.

• The VHRU website now has an additional page available to all the Core Leaders. You open the site, www.vhru.com and on the left on the scroll down bar you will see “Members Only” and then Log in.

Only Team and Squad Leaders can now enter this page and print off the Master List of members and their respective Squad and Team lists. This saves copying close to 1000 pages to distribute to the Core Leadership.  The website is an important tool for our organization for recognition purposes and now can be used more efficiently.

If you haven’t been able to make all the meetings during the year, you can log on our site and look at the Newsletter Page and open the Year in Review. This will give you a summary of all our activity during the year 2008.

• Ted Farace received a CD from Sgt. Lake North Las Vegas PD on the “7 Signs of Terrorism”. This CD takes about 10 minutes to review and wa shown at the November General Membership Meeting.  Squad Leader John Liba had extra copies that he gave out to those members who wished to take one home. 

• On November 24th we had a number of our members attending the Metro PD full day class of Driver Training at the Speedway. We no have over 30 members certified to drive Metro vehicles. This will be helpful when we are asked to assist at the next Laughlin River Ruin and need to transport Metro vehicles down to Laughlin.

• Ted Farace will be flying up to Carson City in the near future to meet with the State Emergency Manager concerning our 2009 grant funding.  State Work Sheets have been received and submitted for grant approval. We will try to get additional funding to purchase additional radios for our communication system.  

Next year we are planning on holding a number of mock exercises, one in North Las Vegas, Laughlin and possibly Henderson. As part of our Grant funding we are required to devote 25% of our funds to training and exercises.

• An e-mail was sent out to all members regarding our ID cards. The Core Leaders agreed that a one time payment of $100.00 will cover the cost of a 4 year ID card. Many members have taken advantage of this savings ($20.00) and have sent in their money. If you already have a new ID card and want this 4 year card, just mail in your check for $70.00 and a new card, which will expire on 12/31/2012 will be mailed to you. This saves the organization time and cost of making a new card each year. 

• Kingman Arizona Police Chief was very interested in using the VHRU after the first meeting in Kingman. At this meeting from the VHRU were Ted Farace, Bob Boerner, Bob Petrusek and Ben Bacci.  A follow up meeting will be scheduled to discuss drafting an MOU with that Police Department. We now have 15 VHRU members living in Mojave County who can assist that agency when needed.

If we expand to Arizona, we need to contact Arizona Emergency Management to see if they will support that team with funding.

• We received a letter from the IRS, which indicates we have permanent status as a 501 c (3) Not for Profit Corporation. Good news. 

• The Board and Core Leaders want to thank all those members who purchased our chance books. We collected a little over $9,000 for our organization.  This additional money will help us with upcoming expenses in 2009.

• The annual Holiday Program Donations Program was kicked off in November. We will be contributing money totaling $3,000 from our Treasury to needy families in Henderson, Las Vegas, Pahrump, Mesquite and Laughlin. 

• On behalf of the Board and the Core Leaders we want to thank everyone for being part of the VHRU. It’s been a good year for our organization and we have increased our membership, which now stands art 276. Happy Holidays to all and all the best for the New Year.

 

Ted Farace