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Emergency management proposes converting county facilities into regional EOC; commissioners ask for time to review
Summary
Klamath County emergency management proposed dedicating Vandenberg and Summers Lane facilities as a county EOC and revenue-generating incident base to reduce a $78,657 general-fund burden; commissioners asked for three weeks to review the plan and financing options.
Klamath County emergency management presented a proposal July 1 to convert county-owned facilities into a more-capable emergency operations center (EOC) and to use rental income from incident management teams and tenants to reduce the county’s general-fund burden.
Ian Thigpen, Klamath County emergency manager, told commissioners the county’s current general-fund burden for capital outlay in emergency management is roughly $78,657 per year. He proposed moving emergency operations into the county-owned Vandenberg facility and dedicating the top floor as an EOC. Thigpen said the county could rent space to incoming Type 2 and Type 3 incident management teams during large incidents, potentially charging about $10,000 for a two-week occupancy, and rent office space to tribes or other partners. He estimated the county could reduce general-fund costs by about $54,000 in a fire season if two multiweek uses occur and some office rents are collected.
Thigpen described other uses for the buildings — Summers Lane could provide lodging with 40 cots for incident leadership and Vandenberg could serve as a training and conference space when not activated. He also described grant opportunities to support EOC upgrades, including an EOC grant that he said is approximately $2 million and is awarded every two years; he said competition for that funding has been light in recent years.
Commissioners expressed cautious support but raised concerns about revenue risk if the facilities are not used. Commissioner De Groot called the proposal “creative” but wanted time to review the numbers; Commissioner Nichols said the county’s role as an incident support base for large-scale events (including Cascadia-related planning) made a substantial EOC desirable. The board agreed to give staff three weeks to return with more detailed figures and a draft plan.
Thigpen said alternative revenue sources and other grant opportunities exist if the full EOC grant is not awarded. Commissioners and staff discussed potential impacts on existing partners such as the fairgrounds and Red Cross, and Thigpen said those operational functions would continue at current locations while the EOC would host project management and incident leadership functions.
Ending: Commissioners asked emergency management to return in about three weeks with refined cost estimates, a proposed scope of remodel, and funding scenarios for further consideration.
