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Emergency management highlights NewCanaanAlerts signup growth, FEMA reimbursements and radio‑system planning
Summary
Town emergency management director Russ Kimes reported expanded emergency communications, school reunification exercises and ongoing planning to maintain the town’s radio system; he said NewCanaanAlerts now has roughly 2,000 signups and the town expects more than $100,000 in FEMA public‑assistance reimbursements for 2024 flood response.
Russ Kimes, New Canaan’s emergency management director, told the Board the town has broadened public communications by leveraging an existing emergency notification platform into a general town newsletter and departmental messaging. "We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000, individuals signed up out of 7,000 homes," Kimes said, adding that multiple departments now use the platform for notifications.
Kimes listed major events and responses from the prior year, including August 2024 flooding, presidential election planning, an earthquake in April 2024 and a fall brush‑fire danger. He said the town is working with FEMA and the State of Connecticut on public‑assistance grants for the August flooding and was "optimistic" that recovered amounts would be north of $100,000 to reimburse overtime, road repairs and similar costs.
On preparedness, Kimes said the town led a school reunification training exercise involving public and private schools and established a memorandum of understanding with an off‑site reunification location. He said the town ran mass‑casualty and train‑derailment exercises and completed a traffic‑incident safety course for interagency teams.
Kimes described emergency management operating requests as down 22% year‑over‑year, driven in part by outside training secured at reduced or no cost through federal and state programs. He also outlined capital needs for Motorola radio software and hardware support; New Canaan owns its public‑safety radio infrastructure and participates in a regional UASI system. Kimes said the town purchased a number of all‑band radios for leadership and line personnel and that replacing the full fleet to move onto the state radio system would require replacing roughly 300 radios and carry a substantial capital cost.
Kimes added that the town purchased new EOC computers and reduced several operating lines where federal or state sourcing removed local expense; he said CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) recruitment and supplies were supported by grant funding.
Ending: Kimes said he is certified as a FEMA instructor and will continue cross‑training with fire marshal and other departments; he asked the Board to consider long‑term funding strategies for the radio system when state options and grants become available.
