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Portage County emergency management to host state course based on its emergency operations center
Summary
County emergency management told the Public Safety Committee the state Emergency Management Office will visit Portage County’s emergency operations center to develop a new statewide course based on the county’s operations; staff also said the county’s FEMA EMPG grant was recently submitted after federal delays.
At the Public Safety Committee meeting, an emergency management official told members the office has been updating the 2026 County Disaster Plan and preparing emergency operations center (EOC) materials as the state prepares to evaluate the county’s EOC to develop a statewide course.
The official said, “they're gonna come up, and I'm gonna teach them about it, 10 or 11:00 today,” adding the state Emergency Management Office plans to send roughly three to six people to learn from the county’s EOC model. The official said the course would be developed for use by counties across the state.
Why it matters: developing a statewide training course based on Portage County’s EOC could position local procedures and systems as a model for other counties and shape future state-level training standards for emergency response. The official also noted that the office’s FEMA EMPG grant application — which funds most of the emergency management office — was finally submitted after lengthy federal delays and estimated the award at about $54,000, saying staff would provide the exact number when available.
Committee members asked for clarification about which state office was involved; the emergency management official confirmed the visit is by the state Emergency Management Office and reiterated that several staff will attend to study the EOC.
Next steps: the official said they will work with county leadership on the course content and will inform the committee if the county should emphasize particular items when the report is presented to the county board.
