Public purchases that nobody needs are usually a nuisance that is discussed at length in many a committee. Now in Vaterstetten there was also talk about purchases that may never be used – but that’s how it should be. It was about civil protection and what the community has to do about it and what equipment they have to get in the hope that it will never be needed.
The measures now presented focus on the power outage, explained Mayor Leonhard Spitzauer (CSU). Specifically, it is about remaining able to act, even if electricity is not available for a long time. Here you will create the conditions to produce your own electricity, which is why you want to procure another large emergency generator. The municipality already owns one, it is at the fire brigade in Parsdorf.
Now another one is to be hired by the Neufarner fire brigade, according to the mayor. This is intended to supply the town hall with electricity in an emergency. The unit mounted on a trailer would cost around 100,000 euros – the finance committee now approved the sum without dissenting votes.
In the event of a longer power outage, the town hall and the fountain school should be the starting points
An electrified town hall is one of the key points of the Vaterstetten disaster control plan. A port of call, a so-called lighthouse, is to be set up there, and another would be the fountain school in Baldham. In these lighthouses, for example, emergency calls would be accepted and forwarded if the telephone network stopped working in the event of a power failure. A kind of hospital is also to be set up there, the first responders would be stationed there and general assistance would be offered, for example if someone is dependent on medication that needs to be stored in a cool place. In the event of prolonged emergencies, relief supplies should also be collected at the contact points. In addition, all fire stations in the villages would become emergency call centers.
An emergency care center is also to be set up in the elementary and middle school, which, however, will have to do without an emergency generator. But there are a few things in the building that make it suitable for a contact point, says Spitzauer. For example the canteen, the gym – and the swimming pool. Because this could serve as a kind of heat storage in an emergency.
The warm water in the school swimming pool could, in an emergency, warm the building above.
(Photo: private/oh)
Of course, information is also important in an emergency – both for the population and for the helpers themselves. The official notice boards – the removal of which has been discussed aloud in the community – could prove to be important in an emergency.
The local amateur radio operators also play an important role in an emergency
In order to stay in contact with the civil protection team in the district office or with those responsible in the district government in the event of a longer power failure, three satellite radios are also to be procured. The local amateur radio operators should also be involved. Because their technology gets by with comparatively little electricity, so it is independent of mains operation if necessary.
The whole thing is “a thankless topic,” said Albert Wirth (CSU), spokesman for the municipal council for the fire brigades: One prepares intensively for something that ideally will never happen. But if you are not prepared – as was the case last year in the Ahr Valley – “everybody knows better afterwards”. With the plan that has now been presented, the municipality is “certainly not in a bad position”, also in comparison with other municipalities in the region.
The fact that disaster control is dealt with so extensively also has something to do with a special feature of the community of Vaterstetten, as Wirth went on to explain. Because Vaterstetten is a lower civil protection authority, a task that normally falls to the district offices. However, the large community has a special administrative status, the “large delegation”. In this way, Vaterstetten takes over some responsibilities from the district, in addition to the civil protection authority, for example the processing of building permits.
Incidentally, the last stage in obtaining information is the detectors. The mayor then explained what that looks like in concrete terms using his office manager Georg Kast: “He then jumps on his bike and drives to the district office in Ebersberg.” He would prefer a car, replied the person addressed – which is actually also part of the disaster control plan: It was actually planned to convert the entire fleet of the municipality to electric cars – but now they want at least one vehicle with a petrol engine in the garage, that’s for sure secure.