Area July 27, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 9 Emergency responders collaborate under local leaders by Jennifer Crusco Two emergency response organizations have decided to collaborate to better serve the community. CERT, the municipal Community Emergency Response Teams, and RACES, the Bergen County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service group, will be working together as the Bergen County Emergency Response and Communications Team. Sergeant Barry Leventhal of the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management spearheaded this county-wide collaboration, which is being run by two members of Ho-Ho-Kus CERT. Those members are CERT Manager and Bergen County RACES Deputy/CERT Liaison Stanley Kober and Bergen County RACES Director and Radio Officer Ronald Bosco. Kober explained that when CERT is activated, RACES will also be activated, and vice versa. He pointed out that these two groups have complementary skills, which will be particularly beneficial when used together. “CERT members are trained for a disaster. RACES members are trained in ham radio operation and the setup of mobile communication sites,” Kober noted. The goal, he said, is to have the members of both groups receive cross-training. Kober pointed out that three of the 57 Ho-Ho-Kus CERT members now have licenses to operate ham radios. “When an incident occurs in our area, we are going to need the resources and skills of each group in order to fill in the gaps created during the emergency,” Bosco added. CERT groups from various Bergen County municipalities, RACES members, and other ham radio operators are invited to participate in joint drills and exercises. Bosco and Kober organized and ran the first of these drills, which was held on a cool, windy April day in the parking lot of the Bergen County Community Services Center in Paramus. RACES volunteer operators are licensed radio amateurs who are certified by a civil defense agency and are able to communicate on amateur radio frequencies during drills, exercises, and emergencies. Members of this group are activated by local, county, and state jurisdictions. They are the only amateur radio operators who are authorized to transmit during declared emergencies when the President of the United States specifically invokes the War Powers Act. RACES volunteers use the National Incident Management System, which employs a prescribed method to enable federal, state, and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together to protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of various incidents. CERT was established by the federal government as part of the Citizens Corps with the goal of training volunteers to fill in until professional emergency responders are able to arrive on the scene. According to CERT’s operating guidelines, this group highlights readiness, people helping people, rescuer safety, and doing the greatest good for the greatest number. CERT focuses on a positive, realistic approach to emergency and disaster situations when citizens will initially be on their own. Citizens are trained to manage utilities; put out small fires; open a person’s airways, control bleeding, treat for shock, and provide other basic medical aid; search for and rescue victims; and organize themselves and others. For information about joining Ho-Ho- Kus CERT, visit www.ho-ho-kuscert.org, or contact Stanley Kober at sakober@yahoo. com or (201) 445-1121. Prospective volunteers may also pick up an expression of interest card at the Ho-Ho-Kus Police Department at 330 Warren Avenue in HoHo-Kus. Bergen County residents who do not live in Ho-Ho-Kus and wish more information about CERT should contact Detective Gidget Petry (petry@bcoem.org) at Bergen County Office of Emergency Management at (201) 785-5746. For information about the RACES organization and/or becoming a ham radio operator, contact Ron Bosco (WB2GAI) at (201) 785-5750 or via e-mail at nj2bc@aol. com or wb2gai@aol.com. The Wyckoff Police Department and U.S. Postal Inspectors have arrested a 41year-old Newark woman who works at the Wyckoff Post Office and charged her with fraudulent use of a credit card and with credit card theft. Wyckoff police said the credit card company notified the cardholder, who is a township resident, about a failed transaction for a sizable amount of gift cards, and the resident contacted the police. An investigation by Wyckoff Detective Sergeant Joseph Soto determined that the township woman had last used her credit card at the Wyckoff Post Office. She inadvertently left the card behind, and the postal clerk who waited on her reportedly pocketed the card. The clerk, while on her break, Postal clerk arrested for credit card fraud reportedly attempted to use the credit card to purchase gift cards at a Wyckoff business. The transaction was declined because the postal clerk did not know the cardholder’s zip code. The postal clerk has been released on her own recognizance, and the complaints have been referred to Bergen County Superior Court. In an unrelated incident, the manager of Wyckoff Getty at 322 Franklin Avenue reported the theft of $250 from a cash drawer in the service station. The theft was discovered when the station opened and there were no signs of apparent forced entry into the building during the night. The investigation has been turned over to the detective bureau.