The Geyserville Y2K committee met Feb. 24 and assigned subcommittees. We agreed to distribute family preparedness packets at the April 5 annual public meeting of the Geyserville Planning Committee. Actually, all of that group's meetings are public, but this one is the best attended because it's the annual one where they invite county officials and authorities in to discuss land-use and development issues. So we hope we will be able to distribute quite a few packets there. We may be able to send informaiton to those who don't come via the school district's mailing list. The good news and the bad news for Geyserville is that we are an unincorporated wide spot in the road. GOOD: We have few people to plan for, no city bureaucracy to deal with, andno big buildings that need contingency plans (no elevators to get stuck On Dec. 31 when their embedded chips go south!). BAD: our committee (convened by GUSD Superintendent Bill Redman) has no official capacity, no authority and no budget, and is dependent for its success on its wits (a pretty small pool of wits we are, too!) and the cooperation of people whose attitudes and awareness of Y2K we don't know. Of course, the time frame is bad news, too: even though it's a small community, we don't have time to assess its needs and resources, much less to implement plans we have no budget to finance. Despite the whining, however, we have agreed to (1) call the county and find out the status of our sewage treatment plant; (2) talk to our own water companies to find out their status; (3) talk to the fire department to see if they know the locations of people with special medical needs and what assistance might help them prevent an emergency in case of a power outage -- and to get their advice on other safety considerations we might not have thought of; (4) proceed with development of the family info packets. Some things we are considering: > Incorporating a community garden with the existing school garden > Hooking up with the Redwood Empire Food Bank's Child's Portion, which provides food to needy families (as least for now!) > A community survey to identify resources/needs. Our next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, at the Ed Park. Anybody with any ideas or questions to share is welcome. --

Suzanne Meeks

-- Suzanne Meeks (LoveSuz@aol.com), March 06, 1999