Klamath County OKs federal grant to update natural hazard mitigation plan
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Summary
The Board of Commissioners approved a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program award to fund an updated Klamath Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, enabling access to federal mitigation and recovery grants.
Klamath County commissioners voted to accept a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) award to update the county's Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, a required plan for many federal mitigation and recovery grants.
The board approved a grant agreement that the county described as a project totaling $124,705, with a 75% federal share of $93,000 and a 25% county nonfederal share of $31,000. Subrecipient management costs were listed at $6,200.
County staff said the update is necessary to keep the county eligible for a wide range of federal grants. The emergency management liaison told the commissioners, "The plan is a prerequisite for all mitigation grants to include disaster response funding ... Not having a natural hazard mitigation plan would cut Klamath County off from accessing hundreds of millions of federal grant dollars and would also have a noncompliance impact for existing federal grants." (Emergency management liaison)
The county plans to contract with the University of Oregon to assemble and analyze large datasets needed for an exhaustive hazard analysis and to develop mitigation measures. County staff said the previous Klamath County natural hazard mitigation plan expired in June 2023.
Commissioner Minty moved to approve the award; the motion was seconded and passed. Commissioners discussed the grant's role in restoring the county's eligibility for federal mitigation and recovery funding and the need to use the plan as the basis for future grant applications.
The agreement authorizes the emergency management liaison to sign the HMGP award and obligates the county to its nonfederal share and subrecipient management costs. Work funded by the award will support data collection, hazard analysis and the development of the updated mitigation plan.
With the vote, county staff said they will proceed to contract negotiations and the data work needed to complete the plan, then use the plan to pursue additional mitigation grants that require an up-to-date local plan.
