Committee approves updated Portage County hazard mitigation plan to preserve FEMA grant eligibility

The Portage County Public Safety & Emergency Management Committee on Thursday approved an updated county hazard mitigation plan intended to keep local governments eligible for federal mitigation funding.

The plan update is required every five years to maintain eligibility for FEMA mitigation grants and related federal funding that followed severe storms in 2019. Committee members voted to forward the plan to the Portage County Board for adoption and subsequent review by the Wisconsin Emergency Management and FEMA.

Emergency management staff said the county began the update about a year and a half ago and compiled material from participating towns and villages into a single document. “We started this about a year and a half ago, and we asked each town or village to please participate if they wanted to,” Emergency Management staff said. Staff said participation by municipalities was voluntary and that some chose not to take part.

The update combines local project lists and risk assessments so towns and villages can compete for mitigation project funding. “In order to be eligible for that money, they have to do a mitigation plan,” Emergency Management staff said, adding the county’s submission is roughly 500 pages and will be published once adopted.

Committee Chair moved to approve the resolution to adopt the updated plan; after a second, members voted unanimously to carry the motion. The committee’s approval sends the plan to the county board, which must adopt it before the county forwards the document to state and federal review.

If the county plan is approved by the state and FEMA, local projects identified in the plan will be eligible to apply for mitigation grants that have been made available following presidential disaster declarations.