Valley County emergency manager urges hiring consultant as hazard-mitigation grants remain on hold

Valley County emergency manager Juan told the Board of County Commissioners on March 10 that the county's five-year all-hazard mitigation plan "sunsets October sixteenth of this year," and staff are recommending hiring an external writer to complete the plan and related chapters to preserve eligibility for mitigation grant awards.

The recommendation matters because FEMA and state grant offices have the county's mitigation and equipment applications under review and some grant cycles are on hold. Juan said the county has a planning grant request of $65,045 to produce a new all-hazard mitigation plan and a second, larger mitigation request from the road department for work in the Four Corners area; the latter was described in the meeting as "almost 300 and some thousand dollars" (amount not specified precisely in the record). FEMA discussions, Juan said, generally indicate review before awards but county staff were told the applications are currently suspended pending additional review.

Juan said the steering committee has drafted hazard assessments and project lists for floods, wildfire, debris flows and related hazards, but the plan still needs the full…