The next time a hurricane floods the streets or a blizzard downs the power grid, residents may look to their neighbors for qualified emergency assistance, thanks to Red Bank’s initiative for a community emergency response team (CERT). “It’s a program where the Office of Emergency Management [OEM] reaches out and invites members of the community of all ages, all backgrounds, to volunteer so that in the event there is an emergency, they should be part of the emergency management response team of the borough,” Mayor Pasquale Menna said. A resolution authorizing the CERT program was approved by the Borough Council at the Jan. 25 meeting, where, coincidentally, local businessman David Prown presented a $3,000 check to the mayor and OEM Coordinator Tom Welsh, the proceeds of his 2012 calendars, which sold out during the holiday season.

“We would certainly put some of that money, whatever we need, toward the CERT program to facilitate that, but also the money is going to serve to maintain some equipment that we’ve acquired and plan on acquiring to meet the needs of our mission,” Welsh said in an interview on Feb. 2.

The OEM recently refurbished radio equipment and reconditioned donated computers for efficient record keeping and standard operations. The department also