Brick CERT Team Members Ready to Serve

Brick Township can now count on seven more residents to help out in an emergency.

That's how many township residents graduated Tuesday from training allowing them to be CERT members. CERT is an acronym for Community Emergency Response Team, a group of citizens that can help out police, firefighters or paramedics in any number of emergency situations. The township now has 42 people on its CERT team, said Police Chief Nils R. Bergquist.

Bergquist said the CERT team has provided "critical support to all of our emergency responders in many ways."

"This team has supported this community in many ways, and I believe they will do so in the future," he added.

Bergquist said CERT members assisted police communications during the Dec. 2010 blizzard, and have handled traffic control at many township events. But members are trained to help out in a number of different situations, the chief said.

CERT members go through training in disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations, disaster psychology, team organization and terrorism response, he said.

Brick Police Ptl. Joseph Pawlowicz helps organize the team and is one of their instructors, Bergquist said.

Those who graduated to become team members this year include Chris Carbanero, Charles Murray, Melissa Thomson, Mark Thomson, Robert Mills, Victor Finamore and Melanie Briggs.