Regional commission opens Jones County pre-disaster mitigation plan public hearing; federal match and schedule explained

The Middle Georgia Regional Commission held a public hearing on March 18 to begin development of Jones County’s pre-disaster mitigation (PDM) plan, a federally required document that catalogs hazards, assesses vulnerability and lists projects to reduce long-term risk.

Greg Vojcke, planner with the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, told county officials the PDM plan is intended to reduce risk to life and property and to make the county eligible for certain federal disaster funds and mitigation grants. He said FEMA typically requires an approved plan for communities to receive many forms of disaster recovery and hazard mitigation funding.

Why it matters: an approved mitigation plan enables the county to pursue federal mitigation grants and improves county resilience by prioritizing projects such as generators for pump stations, flood-risk property measures and other resilience investments.

What the commission outlined

- Project roles: The Middle Georgia Regional Commission will draft the plan and work with the county; the Carl Vinson Institute (via its ITOS office) will prepare an advanced GIS hazard/vulnerability analysis; GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency) will review, and FEMA will give final approval.

- Funding and local match: FEMA-funded PDM planning grants typically cover 75% of eligible planning costs, with a 25% local cost share. Vojcke said the county may provide the local share as in-kind contributions by documenting staff and elected officials’ time in stakeholder and public meetings.

- Schedule and meetings: The commission requested stakeholder participation and said meetings will be held monthly on the first Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The next meeting was scheduled for April 3, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. in the same room. Vojcke said the target for submitting an approved plan to FEMA is January 18, 2026.

- Stakeholders and scope: The process will include county staff, elected officials, public-safety players such as volunteer firefighters, public-health and school-system representatives, and regional partners. The hazard assessment will quantify potential damages to critical infrastructure and estimate costs to inform mitigation priorities.

Public and staff questions

A commissioner asked whether staff should document overtime or regular-time rates for the in-kind match; Vojcke replied that the standard approach is to document regular time plus benefits for staff and to record elected officials and volunteers at the federal volunteer rate for in-kind value.

Vojcke emphasized participation: “Whenever we have a stakeholder meeting, whenever we have a public meeting, anybody who comes to any of those meetings counts,” and said the team will collect sign-in sheets and a short time-tracking form to document in-kind hours.

Next steps and administrative items

The commission will assemble risk and vulnerability appendices, convene the stakeholder committee, and draft mitigation actions for county review. The county must adopt the completed plan before submission to GEMA and FEMA.

Formal actions recorded in the meeting related to opening and closing the hearing and to scheduling follow-up stakeholder meetings; the commission asked for county staff and stakeholder involvement to document the in-kind local match.