CREEDE — Mineral County Commissioners met with Creede School District Superintendent Keith Crispell and Mineral County Emergency Manager Terry Wetherill to discuss potential changes to the district’s Emergency Operations Plan.

Crispell explained that he was hoping to gain approval from the county to use the Mineral County Community Center located north of town as an alternative school location in case an on-site emergency prevented the district from having students at the school for an extended period.

“We were reviewing our emergency and crisis management plan, just trying to go through it and make sure everything was in order and one of the things we came across was a situation where the school may have to move locations due to an emergency such as for instance, a burst pipe or something of that nature. The community center was one of the places we had talked about or the recreation center, we just need a place to gather and have access to basic facilities. I just want to verify that this could be something feasible under the county’s operational plans for what the community center can be used for,” explained Crispell.

Commissioner Ramona Weber said that having the community center serve as an emergency facility for the school was a perfect use of the facilities. The community center is equipped with kitchen and bathroom facilities and has places where specific age groups could be separated from each other for basic learning purposes during an emergency.

County Administrator Janelle Kukuk pointed out that the original plan for the community center included dividers that could make small classrooms or be used for whatever means necessary and were still housed in the facility today.

Kukuk said that though she could have made an executive decision to allow the school to include the emergency use of the facilities at the community center, she felt it more important to have the commissioners directly involved in the process in case there was ever a disruption in the use of the community center due to a potential emergency at the school.

“I think part of the community center’s initial use was for emergency situations. The center was designed to replace the civil defense hospital that was set up in the Commodore Mine and though most of that supply is gone, there is also Red Cross,” said Wetherill.

Commissioner Jesse Albright said that having the community center serve as a facility for such emergencies could potentially open the door for grant or funding opportunities.

“It could mean some grant opportunities for the emergency generator, and other updates," Albright said. "The potential to have it as a secondary school in case of an emergency seems to me like it could open up some funding to improve it.”

Albright made a motion to allow the school to utilize the center as an emergency secondary school which was seconded by Weber and passed unanimously by the board.