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Missoula LEPC updates grants, CWPP engagement and emergency exercises
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Summary
County staff updated the LEPC on wildfire mitigation grants (community wildfire defense grant), the Community Wildfire Protection Plan kickoff and multiple upcoming trainings and exercises including a PIO course, tabletop and airport exercises; staff said project-specific scopes are needed to pursue mitigation funding.
Tim LaRoche told the LEPC the county’s community-wildfire-defense grant has spent about $1.1 million in federal funds with roughly $0.5 million in local match to date; the program continues for about 3½ more years and the total grant value cited by staff was about $4.8 million.
County staff announced kickoff of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) process with three rounds of public engagement (first round in the first week of June, additional engagement in November and late winter) aimed at producing a draft in roughly one year. Staff said the CWPP and grant funds will focus mitigation work in Clark Fork valley communities.
The chair reported that a state grant program that had been canceled was recently reinstated; staff stated Montana expects to receive at least $2 million per year from that program for the state, though details could change.
The LEPC heard several training and exercise announcements: a week-long updated public information officer course (PIO S-203) next week (the county is a beta site for the new course), a Marshall Mountain tabletop exercise to rehearse remote-rescue and interagency coordination, a full-scale airport exercise scheduled for May 2 (required every third year), and a public-health incident-management exercise in partnership with the university. Staff said senior-leadership emergency management training is being developed and a FEMA wildland-evacuation exercise was tentatively canceled or postponed.
Committee members asked questions about HMGP eligibility and were reminded that many mitigation grants require a defined project scope to be eligible for funding. No formal board actions were taken during the updates; staff will continue to track grant receipts and public-engagement scheduling.
