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Carbon County approves SWCA contract to update Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Summary
The Carbon County Commission approved a contract with SWCA Environmental Consultants to rewrite the county's Community Wildfire Protection Plan to meet Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands formatting and compliance requirements; the county will pay $51,263 for required tasks with an optional $13,525 interactive hub.
The Carbon County Commission on Oct. 1 approved a contract with SWCA Environmental Consultants to update the county's Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) to the format required by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
Justin, a county staff member, told commissioners the state changed its CWPP rules and the county must “rewrite the whole plan to to fit the state's format.” He outlined the SWCA bid as task-based pricing that totals $51,263 for required work and an optional $13,525 task to develop an interactive hub and project tracker.
The update will include a kickoff and project management phase ($8,468), a core-team workshop ($13,714), data gathering/mapping and risk assessment ($5,213), and development of the draft and final CWPP ($23,868). The optional interactive hub was priced at $13,525.
Commissioners discussed funding and the county's agreement with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. Justin said the county participates in a wildfire mitigation and preparedness program that requires spending mitigation funds so the state will share firefighting costs for large wildland fires. He explained the county has about $289,000 in wildfire preparedness mitigation funds for the year and that the state's method of averaging 10 years of fire costs produces an average near $299,000 that is used for cost-share calculations.
The commission voted to approve SWCA's bid “as outlined.” No individual roll-call vote tally was provided in the meeting record; the chair called for “All in favor?” and the motion carried after commissioners responded “Aye.”
The updated CWPP is intended to keep the county eligible for the state's mitigation cost-share, reduce the county's exposure to multimillion-dollar suppression bills for large fires on public land, and guide mitigation and equipment upgrades covered by the county's mitigation funds. Justin said the rewrite is required under the county's agreement with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and that timely completion helps ensure state support during large incidents.
Funding for the SWCA work will come from the county's wildfire preparedness/mitigation funds. With the contract approved, staff will move forward with SWCA on the kickoff and subsequent tasks described in the proposal.
