If you use a portable or RV generator during power outages, AEP Ohio has this advice.

Make sure it is properly installed. Have it installed by a qualified electrician who will ensure that it meets national, state and local electrical codes.

Do not plug the generator into your circuit box. Portable generators “back feed” electricity up the line and risk the lives of repair workers and the public. Follow the manufacturers’ instructions carefully, and plug essential appliances directly into the generator.

Summer Parties and Gatherings Near Water Present Risks

New research shows need to take steps to stay safe during summer activities.

An estimated 32 million people across the U.S. plan to host parties or gatherings near water this summer, according to new research by Trusted Choice® and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), yet they may not be aware of all the risks or prepared in case of an accident.

“Summer has arrived and for the next few months, many people will take advantage of the weather by hosting summer parties, testing the waters with sports and recreational watercraft, firing up outdoor grills and uncovering backyard swimming pools,” says Madelyn Flannagan, Big “I” vice president of agent development, education and research. “Summer can be lots of fun, but it’s important to take a few precautionary steps to limit seasonal risks.”

In a national survey, more than 43% of respondents, representing 98.6 million households, said they plan to host a party or any kind of social gathering this summer. Of those, more than 32%, representing more than 32.1 million households, indicated that their event will be held in or around water (such as a pool, beach, boat, lake, etc.).

“Before your next big summer party, we recommend meeting with a Trusted Choice® agent who is an expert in assessing your risks and insuring that you, your family and your home are adequately prepared,” says Robert Rusbuldt, president of Trusted Choice®.

Trusted Choice® offers the following tips to help make your summer a happy and safe one:

Summer Parties: Alcohol, Social Host Liability, Etc.

“Asking guests to stop drinking at your summer party can be very awkward,” says Flannagan. “However protecting your family and your guests is more important than an uncomfortable exchange at the neighborhood pool party. If you host a party and your over-served guest drives away and gets in an accident, you can be held responsible.”

· It's best to avoid alcohol consumption when swimming. Always consume alcohol responsibly when swimming or entertaining at your pool.
· Familiarize yourself with your state’s host liability laws, and to make sure you’re properly insured.
· Limit your guest list to those you know.
· Consider hosting your party at a restaurant or bar that has a liquor license, rather than in a home or office.
· Provide filling food for guests and alternative non-alcoholic beverages.
· Schedule entertainment or activities that do not involve alcohol.
· Arrange transportation or overnight accommodations for those who should not drive.
· Stop serving alcohol at least one hour before the party is scheduled to end.
· Do not serve guests who are visibly intoxicated.
· Consider hiring an off-duty police officer to discreetly monitor guests’ sobriety or handle any alcohol-related problems as guests leave.
· Stay alert, always remembering your responsibilities as a host.
· Review your insurance policy with your agent before the event to ensure that you have the proper liability coverage.

Pool Safety
· Always fence in a pool in your yard, and check your state and local ordinances for fence height requirements. Fencing should include a locked gate that should generally remain locked. Understand that as a pool owner, you are responsible and liable for anyone who comes on to your property and into your pool--even accidentally.
· Always cover an empty or partially empty pool in the off-season. Serious injuries can result from children or others jumping or falling into a pool that is not full. When possible, consider an easily retractable pool cover to seal anytime the pool is not in use, even in the summer.
· Never let children swim alone and keep a properly maintained supply of safety equipment in plain view of all swimmers, including life rings and other floats, lines, and a first aid kit.
· Maintain the pool properly. Check pools edges thoroughly at the beginning and end of each season to ensure that no tile, concrete or other material has come loose. Sun and other elements can damage these edges and pose a hazard to those who step or pull up on them. Always use a non-slip, quick-drying material to avoid injuries on walkways and other areas surrounding the pool.
· Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death among children under five. Have a family member take a safety course to become Red Cross certified to help in the event of an emergency.
· Tell your insurance agent if you install a backyard pool. Some homeowners policies exclude pools, and extra coverage will be needed. Ensure that you have adequate liability insurance.

Grills and Outdoor Pits
· Thoroughly clean gas grill at beginning of season. Replace and maintain fire extinguisher near but not on the grill at all times. Never throw a match in a grill, especially after the gas has been on three seconds.
· Never wear a loose apron or loose clothing while grilling. Always wear shoes.
· Always use the grill's starter button. If the starter is broken, do not use the grill.
· Cover the grill to avoid to corrosion and rusting in both the controls and gas line. Rust can make grill controls hard to read and make the starter button difficult to depress. Consider using a grill with an automatic starter rather than a button starter.
· Avoid cooking foods with a high fat content which can produce high flames. Always thoroughly cook food to a safe temperature.
· Never throw away grill instructions or owner’s manual. Follow manufacturer’s directions carefully.
· Outdoor fire pits are often low to the ground and could be alluring to children. Make sure to keep children away even long after the fire has been extinguished. Fire pits can hold heat for several hours after the flames are gone.

Driving/Vehicles
Boats
· Understand your liability and risks. The homeowners policy is not designed to cover significant watercraft exposures and consumers should contact their agent to see if coverage can be added or if they need a separate watercraft policy that fully covers damage to the boat, liability and uninsured boaters.
· Many people rent boats and even with a watercraft policy, be aware that there may be no coverage for rentals.
· Never use a boat that is not equipped with fully operational safety equipment onboard. At a minimum, any boat should contain life preservers for all occupants, a well-stocked first aid kit, powerful flashlight, two-way VHF radio, fire extinguisher, flare kit and a local area water chart. Large boats should also contain additional lines of varied size and an inflatable lifeboat.
· Never exceed the passenger capacity recommended by the manufacturer.
· Always keep all owners manuals onboard.
· Take a boat safety and operations course, sponsored in many communities by the U.S. Power Squadron or the U.S. Coast Guard.

Jet skis
· Jet skis and other similar recreational water vehicles can be very dangerous and they can require separate insurance policies. Owners should also consult their insurance agent to make sure they have adequate liability coverage to protect them, especially if they regularly ride tandem or if they injure others in an accident.
· Children should never ride a jet ski.
· Never use a jet ski in foul weather.
· Strictly follow all safety guidelines and make sure anyone driving the vehicle knows exactly how to operate it and shut it off.
· Take care and understand the risks in storing and transporting jet skis. Standard homeowners and auto policies will not cover theft of the water vehicle from a trailer.
· Use caution when renting a jet ski and know your responsibilities. Always consult an agent to fully understand liability exposure and coverage in this situation.

Other/general driving/vehicle tips
· Summer sun glare is an issue for all drivers of any kind of vehicle, and particularly for senior citizens whose eyes and/or prescription glasses can’t easily accommodate changes in light. Unexpected glare can cause serious accidents. Be prepared by always keeping glasses, visors, or other sun shields in your vehicle, especially if traveling near or on the water.
· Never operate any vehicle under the influence of alcohol, certain prescription drugs or fatigue. Obey all traffic laws and maintain safe driving habits.
· Make sure you and your party guests follow all parking rules and ordinances, especially in residential neighborhoods.

The survey was conducted for Trusted Choice® via telephone by International Communications Research (ICR), an independent research company in Media, Pa. Interviews of a nationally representative sample of 1,006 households were conducted in May 2010. The survey has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.1%. For more information about ICR, go to www.icrsurvey.com.

OHIO, ARE YOU READY?
Ohio’s Readiness and Preparedness Site Has New Look, New Information

The state of Ohio recently launched its improved Web site, which focuses on FEMA’s Ready campaign and lists readiness and preparedness tips for incidents that frequently occur in Ohio.

ReadyOhio provides links to the Ready campaign’s Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed, and Listo.gov. It also provides easy access to fact sheets on incidents that are common in Ohio.

It asks Ohioans if they are ready for home fire prevention, floods, thunder and lightning, power outages, tornadoes, winter storms and evacuation. Each page provides definitions and/or descriptions of each hazard and provides a link to more complete disaster supplies kit checklist, provided by the American Red Cross.

ReadyOhio is a product of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Ready campaign and National Preparedness Month. Ready is a national public service advertising campaign designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all emergencies. The Ready campaign encourages all states to produce a Ready site with information pertinent to their citizens.

Being ready is ensuring that everyone is prepared to respond to, recover from and rebuild from any major incident – whether it’s an influenza pandemic, a catastrophic tornado or flood, or an extended power outage. Being ready is ensuring that homes and businesses have disaster plans. Being ready is practicing safety drills. Get ready, Ohio. Go to www.ready.ohio.gov.

ReadyOhio partners include: the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Homeland Security, Ohio Emergency Management Agency, Ohio Citizen Corps, American Red Cross, Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness, and a host of other state agencies and organizations.

For many people, composting is just an alternative way of dealing with rubbish. It prevents the garbage bin from getting full and smelly. It's also a way of disposing of grass clippings and leaves, which saves many trips to the garbage depot. Whilst these things are valid, they are not giving compost the full credibility it deserves. Compost can be very valuable when used in the right way.

I have a completely different way of looking at compost. To me, composting is a way of building valuable nutrients that will, one day, feed me and my family. I only use compost on my vegetable gardens. The way I manage my vegetable gardens means that composting is an integral part of the whole food production system. I create compost as a way of collecting nutrients in one form (waste), and turning them into another form (food).

The average person buys food from a shop, consumes it and then sends the waste away. This is simply buying nutrients, taking what you need for that precise moment, and disregarding the remainder. It's a nutrient flow that only flows in one direction, like a fancy car roaring down the road. You admire the car for a moment, but after a second or two, it's gone.

My goal is to slow down the car and then get it to do a U-turn. I want to keep the nutrients within my property where I can capitalize on them. By doing this, I am able to use the nutrients again, so I don't have to buy them for a second time. Surely, that's going to save me money. It may seem strange to think of nutrients in this way when we can't even physically see them. However, all organic materials contain nutrients. My goal is to get those nutrients out of the form they are in and into a form that is useful to me and my family.

To put it in a different way; composting is a vehicle in which we are able to create a nutrient cycle within our property. We are part of that cycle because we consume the nutrients when they are, for a brief time, in a useful form. Then they return to the compost and slowly make their way into another useful form where we consume them again. This cycle can go on and on indefinitely. Of course, there will be many lost nutrients that you will never see again, but with a little diligence, you will be surprised at how much compost you can create, and hence, how many valuable nutrients you can recycle.

My composting system is large because I have a few large vegetable gardens. I believe that the size of your vegetable garden should be determined by how much compost you can create, and not merely by the amount of space you have in your backyard. To run a rich, high yielding vegetable garden you need to have some sort of soil conditioning plan, and the best thing for your soil is a generous layer of good compost on the surface a few times per year.

If you can create your own compost from the organic waste that you generate in your everyday life, then you can have a vegetable garden that is self-sustainable. Once it is set up, it will never need nutrients in the form of store-bought fertilizers. You will have established a flow of nutrients, and your nutrient-store will grow bigger and bigger, year after year. Applying compost to your garden will have a very positive effect on your soil structure and fertility. With good soil structure and plenty of organic material, you will be able to release nutrients that have been locked up and unavailable to your plants. You will be speeding up the flow of nutrients, thus increasing your yield significantly. Your soil will become alive and healthy with micro-organisms and soil bacteria that are beneficial to creating the conditions for proper plant growth. Your vegetables will contain all the essential nutrients in the correct proportions, giving your body the vitamins and minerals it needs to function at its best.

Composting is very easy once you make it part of your everyday life. A small container on your kitchen bench to collect scraps and a daily trip to the compost bin is all it takes. It's a small effort for huge rewards. The golden rule in making compost is never to have large clumps of a single type of material. Thin layers of hot and cold materials work best. Cold materials include leaves, shredded newspaper and dried grass clippings. Hot materials include fresh grass clippings, manures, weeds, discarded soft plants and kitchen scraps.

If you make composting part of you daily routine, along with an effective method of growing food, you can literally save thousands of dollars per year. This is possible simply because you won't have to keep buying nutrients over and over. You will buy them once, hold onto them and then convert them into useful forms again and again. It's that simple!

By Jonathan White, environmental scientist

About the Author
Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method, a high yielding, low-maintenance form of vegetable gardening. For more information see www.Food4Wealth.com

For more information contact:
Wayne County Sustainable Energy Network
1022 Heyl Road (Co. Rd. 139)
Wooster, OH 44691

Phone: 330-262-1984 x211

email: info@wcsen.org

Visit the Wayne County Sustainable Energy Network website http://www.wcsen.org/ for upcoming events and information.