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Emergency management presents quarterly plan, warns of likely EMPG cut and schedules IPP workshop
Summary
The county emergency manager summarized training, equipment, and planning priorities tied to the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) and scheduled an Integrated Preparedness Plan workshop for Feb. 26; staff said FEMA reduced EMPG allocations and predicted further cuts.
Rich, the county’s emergency-management lead, delivered the quarterly update on Jan. 9, reporting on grants, planning, training and equipment for Chaffee County’s emergency services.
Grant funding: Rich said the 2024 Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) award was roughly $60,000 (down from prior years’ amounts he recalled), and that FEMA reduced match funding nationally — he estimated a further cut of at least 10% for the 2025 EMPG award. He said the EMPG typically covers about 50% of the emergency management office’s operating costs; Don (a county administrator referenced in the meeting) reviews and signs the application before submission. The 2025 EMPG application is due next week, Rich said, and the work plan mirrors prior years with quarterly milestones tied to the county’s Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP).
Integrated Preparedness Plan and workshops: Rich scheduled an IPP workshop for Wednesday, Feb. 26 (hybrid: in person and virtual) to update county and stakeholder plans on a four-year cycle. He said the IPP guides planning, organization, equipment, training and exercises. Rich also reported completion of a Colorado Emergency Preparedness Assessment last fall (32 attendees plus written input) and said the county must do the assessment every three years to maintain EMPG eligibility.
Equipment and communications: Rich said the county obtained two preparedness trailers through regional Homeland Security funds and about $8,000 worth of shelter resource equipment (plus access-and-functional-needs cots). He described work to reprogram and reassign handheld radios returned from the sheriff’s office, and to dedicate three radio channels for search-and-rescue operations. He said the county plans regular EOC training next month and every two months after that, using an alternate EOC facility in Buena Vista and the fairgrounds.
Alerting and Everbridge: On public alerts, Rich said the county can now push messages in a single language and works with the state and FEMA on improvements; the Everbridge mass-notification system has constraints and costs, and the county is discussing alternative systems for non-emergency notifications to avoid desensitizing the public. He described needed clarifications to the county’s Alert & Warning Annex about who has authority to push messages and said drills to test internal responder communications are planned.
Training and outreach: Rich listed classes and conferences planned for the quarter — AFN (access and functional needs) training, continuity-of-operations (BOLD) software training, recovery-from-disaster class, FEMA G191 (ICS–EOC interface) and a “overview for senior officials” briefing aimed at department heads and commissioners.
Next steps: Rich will circulate the EMPG work plan, continue IPP outreach, update MOUs (notably with local schools whose MOUs are about 10 years old), and run the IPP workshop Feb. 26. He warned the board that federal cuts to EMPG funding and local turnover in fire departments have affected preparedness capabilities and will be priorities for the coming year.
