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Mifflin County adopts updated hazard-mitigation plan; plan includes opioid, mental health and homelessness sections
Summary
Commissioners adopted a multi-jurisdiction hazard mitigation plan submitted to the federal government; staff said adoption makes municipalities eligible for mitigation and post-disaster funding and the plan adds sections on opioids, mental health and homelessness.
The Mifflin County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt an updated, multi-jurisdiction hazard mitigation plan that county staff submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for review.
Staff described the plan as a multi-year document identifying hazards in the county and municipalities and listing potential mitigation measures to reduce risk and improve access to pre-disaster and post-disaster funding. The presenter said the full plan is lengthy—“almost 500 pages long”—and that the county and local municipalities have up to one year after FEMA approval to formally adopt the plan locally.
County staff said an addition to this cycle’s plan is a pre-disaster recovery plan that inventories available state and federal funding sources that could be used for matching grants or mitigation activities. The presenter added that because local matches are often required (he said 5% to 15% in many cases), listing funding sources helps municipalities meet those obligations.
The presenters and commissioners also discussed newly included sections addressing the ongoing public-health and social-service hazards of opioid overdoses, mental-health crises and homelessness. The presenter said these topics were not typically part of traditional federal hazard mitigation plans but that the county worked with contractors to include them after the planning committee recommended the addition.
By adopting the plan, staff said municipalities and identified hazards become eligible for federal pre-disaster mitigation and post-disaster response funding. The board approved the resolution by voice vote.
The county said it will distribute the adopted plan and the pre-disaster recovery appendix to local municipalities to support local grant applications and mitigation projects.
