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Commission delays adoption of county Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan and Community Wildfire Protection Plan to April 1
Summary
Emergency management presented a FEMA-reviewed digital mitigation plan; several commissioners asked for the online link and the item was continued to allow review by newly seated commissioners and municipalities.
Pennington County delayed formal adoption of the 2024 Pennington County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan and the linked Community Wildfire Protection Plan until its April 1 meeting after county officials and several commissioners said they had not reviewed the digital plan.
Dustin Willett, the county emergency manager, described the five-year natural hazard plan and said FEMA has completed a review and approved the plan pending adoption by local elected bodies. Willett said the new plan is hosted in a digital Esri StoryMaps format and that the wildfire plan is embedded as the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. He told the Commission that the plan replaces a bulky printed document and said he would distribute the web link to commissioners.
Commissioner Weifenbach and others said they had not received the link and asked for time to review the material; one commissioner said he could not vote on a document he had not seen. The board voted to continue both the Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan resolution and the Community Wildfire Protection Plan resolution to the April 1 meeting, allowing staff to circulate the online plan to all participating municipalities and elected bodies for signatures.
Willett noted the plans also support eligibility for federal grants such as BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) and agency wildfire grants; the county will seek municipal adoption signatures across the county prior to the April 1 continuation.
