LEPC Feb 2026 Minutes

1.Call to Order: LEPC Chairperson Ann Houk called the meeting to order at 2:07 p.m. 

A. Attendance: Ann Houk, Gina Gregory, Ryan Gadbury, Beth Bowdin, Jilene Reichle, Kyle Burtch, Sean McKinney, Regan Gerber, Stephanie Rowe, Robert McKenzie, Andrew Hall, Katy Timken, Lorena Mireles, Ledena Baytops, Vanessa Pearce, Tammy Griffith, Bryan Ellis, Paula Davis, Richard Montano, Julie Stimson. Jaron Barrett, Tara Zajic, Jon Schropfer, Stewart Seagraves, Jonathan Marr, Lizeth Ortega, Nick Becker, Lane Sekavec, Rorik Moore-Jansen, Jessica Pereira, Allen Bennington, Richard Roller, Jace Helstrom, Cannon Ball, Justin Blew, Katie Asbury

Introductions: Ann provides a “thank you” to Allen Bennington, Boeing Fire and Andrew Hall,
Boeing Fire, for hosting the LEPC meeting.

2. Minutes Approved:Minutes from the November 13th, 2025 meeting are approved as
written with corrections made as per request of Julie Stimson for clarification on the LEOP..
Motion to approve by Julie Stimson and second by Richard Montano. All present in
agreement with minutes with amended changes approved and accepted. 

3. OLD BUSINESS:
A. LEOP Review and Submission
Julie states all signatures have been received and the LEOP should be good for 5 years. Julie
states a comprehensive review will start in 2029. Julie states that the plan can be reviewed on the
website for the county: https://www.sedgwickcounty.org/media/62434/combined-leop-pdf.pdf
Jon S states the commission accepted the plan on December 3rd, 2025.
B. 2026 Safety Expo
Ann states that the expo is planned for Century II. Ann encourages LEPC members to participate.
Robert McKenzie would like to participate in the planning committee. Ann provides a thank you to
Bryan Ellis for all of the effort he put in last year. Ann states that she looks forward to a solid team
to make the community education successful. Ann states that this forum is one way to promote
awareness and readiness at the community level. Ann states that Shannon Frederickson with
Century II has been great to work with and we anticipate an approval from them soon.
Ann states that one of our goals of the LEPC is to put out community education. Jessica extends
an offer for participation to make the event a success.
Julie requests what month, Ann states the event will be in September to follow safety awareness
month. Jilene states it is also national preparedness month.
C. 2026 Host Sites
Ann states that she is working on recruiting and locating new meeting sites and is thankful for those
host sites for 2026 which includes the Regional Fire Training and EOC.
D. Membership List
Ann states when she started many years ago that we had 9 members and as of today we have 70
members of the LEPC. Ann states that she is happy that this is proof of the vested interest to keep
our community safe. Ann states that she is cleaning up the list to email out to everyone so that it
can be proof read and ready for submission to Julie S for presentation to the county commission.
E. Round Table
No discussion offered.
4. NEW BUSINESS:
A. Tier II Reports
Ann states that she has printed off the Tier II businesses list and has prepared a LEPC post card
to be disseminated. Julie offers to have their print shop to send them out. Ann states she will
drop the list off and the cards off.
Ann states she would like a member to be willing to report on Tier II incidents. Ann states that
Robert McKenzie will complete training on how to get to the incidents and quarterly reporting.
Jon S states there are approximately 270 reporting sites. Jon states that many sites you would
not expect to have to report and only have about 200 that have reported. Jon S that he is sending
email invites when he receives the reports by email. Jon S states that he will work on pulling data
from the reports and help get contacts from them to send out invites.
Ann states that of the 270 businesses we only have 11 that are active on the LEPC. Julie states
We can not enforce but can invite. Ann states in the past we have gone with the fire department
to site visit businesses that were visible but not reporting. Jon S states that lithium batteries are
not reportable.
B. Quarterly LEPC Education
Ann states that Julie S has made a recommendation for the LEPC to provide education at each
meeting based on our chemicals we see in the community. Ann has a list of chemicals/topics
open to the membership to provide education on them. Ann states that Jaron B has offered to
provide education for the first chemicals. Ann states she will disseminate the list for sign up. Ann
states that Jaron will speak today on Caustic soda and hydrochloric acid. Ann states that it is
merely a 10-15 minute in-service that the information can also be shared with the community.
C. Community Education
Ann states that the IPPW is to discuss a 3 year plan for planning and exercises to collaborate
and share exercises across the community so that there is not exercise fatigue. Julie states the
goal is to ensure that we align exercises to help meet all objectives. Jonathan Maas states that
he would like to help with any exercises for 2026.
D. Bylaws/Mission Statement
Ann states that she contacted KDEM who states that they no longer use the Kansas
LEPC/TERC handbook and instead reference the National LEPC/TERC handbook. Ann states
she has emailed the link.
Ann states that the LEPC must have or do an exercise annually. Ann states that she would like
to look at the exercises that are applicable to the LEPC to be done in the fall of each year. Ann
states that some recommendations included communication interruption, large scale riots, large
scale chemical release. Julie states that we could use the real world experiences from other
counties as they would apply to our county would be good. Julie S requests the first to be a
response to anhydrous ammonia release. Ann requests assistance to help get the table top
exercise created. Ann requests that November be reserved for the exercise since it will be at the
EOC. Ann states the LEPC meeting from 1p-3p in November and will incorporate the exercise.
E. Practical Pipelines
Ann states she emailed out the link to the education for LEPC members on the pipelines in
Sedgwick County. Julie states it would be good to look at the education to be presented at one of
the meetings. Julie states that there is lots of pipelines in Sedgwick County and discusses
“batching”. Ann states that the link to the education is on the agenda and really encourages
everyone to complete it. Ann states at the next meeting it will be added to the agenda.
F. LEPC Compliance Report Submission
Ann states that she completed and submitted the annual compliance report and was grateful for
Robert with KDEM for allowing the attendance at a joint exercise with the Oklahoma/Kansas
pipeline as credit for the annual exercise requirement. Ann stated moving forward the LEPC will
have their own tabletop exercise in November.
Julie states that the last commodity flow study (2014) has been done greater than 5 years ago
and we have submitted for a grant for completing a new commodity flow study. Julie states that
the study requires a lot of effort and resources. Ann states that one of the vendors states that
the costs can be in excess of $100,000 for a new study but if it was just an update $30,000.
Julie states that the study will help with preparedness and awareness for our county in lieu of the
region. Julie states we will need to do a grant match and more than likely it will be a person
resource. The last flow study is also on the website.
G. 2026 LEPC Exercise
Ann states that she would like to have a 5 year plan for exercises and have the table top
exercises prepared by LEPC members. Ann states the goal is to ensure that the functions of
the LEPC support emergency preparedness.

H. National LEPC/TERC Handbook
Ann provides a link to the full handbook and states chapter 12-14 are available as a handout.
Ann states that moving forward any reference to the handbook will be to the National LEPC
handbook.
I. Fall Initiative Sedgwick County FD1
Ann states that she is collaborating with Sedgwick County fire district 1 to implement a fall
initiative program that mimics the program in Derby. Ann states that John Halley, Chief Hensley,
Jessica and her met to discuss the need for fall awareness and a plan to assist with a reduction in
community falls for those communities they serve. Ann states at this time it is in discussion and
not moved forward. Ann states she will report at the4 next LEPC meeting any forward movement.

J. Round Table
Julie states that since the LEPC is all hazards that she brought flyers on the upcoming weather
classes. The weather service will be presenting one on February 25th in Maize. Julie states that
SCEM will be presenting the classes throughout the community. Julie states this is severe
weather class not a spotter class.
Ann states that there was discussion on setting up an all hazardous meeting but discourages it
since the LEPC is an all hazard meeting. Julie thinks we want to do an all hazardous after action
meeting that can happen in between the LEPC meeting.
Ann states that she has flyers on some classes being offered by KDEM. Ann states that we really
need to get good attendance at the meetings.


5. EDUCATION
Hydrochloric Acid and Caustic Soda Liquid
Jaron Barrett
OxyChem
Jaron provides handouts on Hydrochloric Acid and Caustic Soda. Jaron discuss the various names
for each chemical, the placard that you may see and what it means. Jaron discusses the corrosive
nature of each chemical and symptoms you may experience when coming in contact with each
chemical. Jaron states that OxyChem produces both chemicals.
Jaron discusses how to respond to direct contact which includes washing the skin very well. Jaron
states that there are respiratory hazards and mixing issues. Jaron states that an example is mixing
bleach and ammonia which yields chlorine which can be deadly. Jaron states that there are several
chemicals that interact with both.
Jaron states that these chemicals can be found in your home in the form of over the counter pain
medications, bleach and cleaners.
Jaron states that hydrochloric acid has a high level of respiratory warning. Jaron discusses the
signs and symptoms you may experience when exposed, how to respond to exposures, and some
different methods to reduce exposure. Jaron states example include toilet bowel cleaners. Jaron
states that these chemicals can be carried by rail or trailers. Jaron states to watch the placards and
just be aware that even trucks like Walmart may not be aware of what they are carrying.
Jessica asks how a product that can melt through metal and corrode the skin be allow to be in
products we ingest? John S states that it depends on the composition of the chemical-basically
safe for household dose and then there is a corporate/facility amount. Julie S states in the ERG
1823 and 1789 are the placards you will see for these chemicals. Julie S states that the ERG is
very helpful if you are not familiar with what the chemicals are.
6. PRESENTATION/Facility Tour:
Andy Hall states as boeing continues to transition over spirit there will be several changes seen.
Andy states that currently there are about 12,500 employees with several thousand more positions
being filled. He states there are about 1400 contractors on site. Andy states they have their own
fire department and emergency response team. Andy states that there are about 42 monitored rails
underground.
Andy states that at this time they can not do a tour of the facility.
7. ROUND TABLE:
Ann requests volunteers for upcoming chemical education. Justin Blew will do Sulfuric Acis on May
14th, Andy Hall will do Annhydrous Ammonia November 19th. John S offers chemical warfare for
August 20th
.
8. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting is adjourned at 3:45pm.

Next meeting: May 12, 2 p.m. on site and zoom

Presenter: Travis Parmley 

Location: Haz-Mat Response, Inc.