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Richland County emergency manager outlines role, grants and resilience work; EMPG and EPRA funding cited
Summary
The county emergency manager briefed the committee on the office’s responsibilities — preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation — and described grant funding (EMPG, EPRA) that supports planning, local hazardous-facility oversight (LEPC) and resilience work coordinated with the Southwest Regional Planning Commission.
Richland County’s emergency manager told the Public Safety Standing Committee on June 6 that the county’s emergency management program covers preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation and relies on state and federal grants to sustain operations.
The manager summarized program responsibilities under state statutes and described how Emergency Management Planning Grant (EMPG) and Emergency Planning and Right-to-Know Act (EPRA) funding support planning, exercises and hazardous-facility oversight. “EMPG funding makes up a large chunk of the funding for our office,” the emergency manager said, and the county received roughly $28,000 in EMPG and about $8,200 for EPRA in fiscal year 2025, the presenter said.
Why it matters: emergency management coordinates county response and is the point of contact to Wisconsin Emergency Management and, ultimately, FEMA during larger incidents. The office also manages LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) responsibilities for facilities with extremely hazardous substances.
Details from the presentation: the emergency manager described the county’s resiliency group — convened with the Southwest Regional Planning Commission — that seeks to implement mitigation-plan actions and to make mitigation ongoing rather than project-by-project. He said the goal is for communities to lessen recovery time by emphasizing preparedness and mitigation in non-disaster periods.
The manager explained the incident command relationship: local authority remains the incident authority and the county provides support; state and federal resources are requested only when local and county assets are exhausted. He also described grant-related program requirements and the plan to bring a funded emergency-management coordinator position to committee action on June 27.
Committee questions: members asked about required training and certification. The emergency manager said some federal training is required by grant conditions and that he is working through required courses; the Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) credential is optional and would take additional years to complete.
Next steps: staff will proceed with personnel and grant-planning work and share details about EMPG deliverables and local mitigation/resiliency activities with the committee.
