HUNTSVILLE — After some residents approached local government leaders last summer with worries about riots and protests in America, the volunteer Huntsville United Civil Response Team was born.
The team conducted a drill Tuesday evening, slowing the flow of traffic on the two roads into the town and testing generators and other emergency gear.
The team’s talk of helping to protect Huntsville from “civil unrest” has raised alarm about what some residents perceive as militia-style activity, done under the town government’s auspices.
“Seems like a micro extremist group,” resident Shauna Miller said in a post on the town’s Facebook group.
But Mayor Jim Truett, responding to those and other complaints, said in a pair of interviews this week that the team is part of the town’s Certified Emergency Response Team and will not stray from CERT’s mission of helping during natural disasters and the like.
The mayor acknowledged the “civil response” undertaking “got off to a rough start” during initial meetings last summer.
“They needed some guidance,” Truett said. “We are not supporting anything negative. This has nothing to do with rioting or carrying guns or a militia.”
He said town officials eventually agreed to the formation of the civil response team within the existing CERT framework.
Civil response members are receiving CERT training, and their activity benefits the town’s capabilities to respond to emergencies, the mayor said.
“This has been misconstrued,” Truett said. “Huntsville doesn’t support militia or vigilantes or any of that, and we don’t want to.”
Still, Truett said he regretted the wording of a post on the town’s Facebook page Friday by a civil response team member.
“Events of the past year have reemphasized to many of us the importance of being prepared,” the post said. “One of the situations our (HUCRT) has worked on is the possibility of using traffic control points into town during some emergencies. During a severe earthquake, other natural disaster or civil unrest and the Sheriff’s Department was overwhelmed, we could help stabilize the situation with these checkpoints.”
The town posted a clarification Tuesday. Traffic would be narrowed, not blocked, and there was no reference to civil unrest.
Truett said the wording of the original post was a “mistake” and, further, perhaps the town “didn’t come up with the right name” for the group.
Lt. Cortney Ryan, Weber County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said the agency commonly works with community CERT groups “to help with emergency preparedness.”
“As a CERT team, they are just there for emergencies like flooding and earthquakes,” Ryan said, “not necessarily in response to a riot or protests. That would fall onto the Sheriff’s Office and our mobile field force.”
But how the town handles its CERT operation is its own business, he said.
“We’re going to leave it up to the council and the mayor up there,” Ryan said.
Bruce Ahlstrom, a leader of the town’s civil response team, denied the team is focused on any specific supposed threats.
He said the effort took form after “the craziness last year.”
“I think we are concerned with any civil disobedience, anything of civil unrest, not any particular group,” Ahlstrom said.
Ahlstrom said no one was armed at the Tuesday drill.
Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon said Thursday the initial meeting with members of the group last summer was a free-wheeling brainstorming session “with all kinds of scenarios” brought up by individuals.
He said sheriff’s personnel were there to offer support for CERT and that interest in anything beyond that was discouraged.
“They didn’t ask for training and we didn’t teach them to shoot guns and arrest people,” Arbon said.
Truett said there “never, ever” was any official sentiment against antifa or Black Lives Matter.
“Some of the concerns the group had were, if Huntsville town comes under attack or there are protesters, that was some of the dialogue,” the mayor said. “If there are protesters coming up to Huntsville, if it gets out of hand, how do we defend ourselves? I don’t recall Black Lives Matter or antifa ever being mentioned at all.”
He said Huntsville’s geographic location alone lends itself to an emphasis on preparedness, because the town is sandwiched on a peninsula in Pineview Reservoir.
On the town’s website, the response team’s mission statement lists standard CERT goals but also contains “defense” and “intelligence” sections.
It says the team should “plan for the safety and defense of Huntsville” in scenarios including earthquake, flood, severe weather “or possible civil unrest.”
The “intelligence” section calls for a committee to “monitor current national and local threats.”
“An early and quick response to possible threats to the town of Huntsville would be much more effective,” the document says. “This may be done through news reports, monitoring social media, and other sources.”
The effort would coordinate with the Real Time Crime Center in Ogden, it said.
The mayor said he is confident officials have a firm handle on the whole CERT operation.
“This is just a simple extension of Huntsville town,” Truett said. “We want to take the CERT program and make the best of it. It’s not like a bunch of hotheads with guns.”
