A Langley city councilwoman did a little fact finding about which places can and can’t operate as emergency warming shelters and revealed the need for some changes to the city’s response plan.

Councilwoman Rene Neff discussed what she learned after making a few calls around town during the Feb. 16 council meeting. To her surprise, most locations she called were receptive to acting as emergency shelters in the event of a prolonged power outage.

“Almost everybody was willing to do that,” she said.

One of the previously discussed locations at St. Hubert Catholic Church on Third Street has a generator and agreed to open its doors during an emergency so long as someone from the church’s administration was available.

Neff said a pair of locations in town, however, could not receive people seeking warmth and shelter. Saratoga Inn preferred to continue operating as a business and would find other ways of serving residents, and Brookhaven was not allowed to open its doors to outsiders because it houses the elderly.

“Although we don’t have a one place, we do have several places open,” Neff said.

Previously, the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club discussed its role in providing shelter during an emergency, and was pursuing an emergency shelter designation within its own organization’s members. The Langley United Methodist Church, Island Church of Whidbey, and Langley City Hall are all currently on the city’s official list of emergency shelters. But the two churches do not have generators, so during a power outage heat would not be available.

Mayor Tim Callison said he would like to see that information turned into an easily recognized graphic and included into the city’s emergency plan.