SIDNEY — The Shelby County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) will hold its annual exercise on Wednesday, March 20, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) located at the Sidney Police Department. The EOC is a location designed to support emergency response, business continuity, and crisis communications during a major emergency or disaster. The functional exercise will focus on testing the EOC’s ability to coordinate and support emergency response activities and to test the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) chemical emergency response and preparedness plan.

Local evaluators and an Ohio Emergency Management Agency (OEMA) facilitator will provide comments to be compiled in an After-Action Report and filed with the Ohio State Emergency Response Commission (SERC). The After-Action Report will be publicly released at the May 28th LEPC meeting and will include state and county recommendations for future training and response procedures.

The Shelby County LEPC develops and submits a county-wide chemical emergency response and preparedness plan, or updates to the plan to the Ohio SERC annually for review and concurrence. An exercise of the plan must be conducted annually. Although the main emphasis of the LEPC is related to chemical emergency preparedness and response, the committee is also involved in other relevant issues of emergency preparation.