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Granville planners weigh trimming broad "severe summer weather" entry, adding landslides and infectious disease to hazard plan
Summary
Consultant Kyle Katz and the Selectboard debated how to restructure Granville's draft hazard mitigation plan to satisfy Vermont Emergency Management: remove a broad 'severe summer weather' category in favor of sub-hazards, and consider adding landslides and infectious disease if justified by local impact.
Granville's draft local hazard mitigation plan is under revision after feedback from Vermont Emergency Management, and at a July 14 selectboard meeting planner Kyle Katz walked the board through options to align the plan with the state's review criteria.
Katz recommended removing a general "severe summer weather" hazard because the state evaluates sub-hazards individually (thunderstorm, hail, high wind, flooding). He said the mitigation strategies currently written for the broad category can remain in the plan, but VM prefers separate, targeted hazard profiles so it can validate priority rankings and mitigation needs.
Board members and Katz also discussed whether to add landslides and infectious disease as top hazards. Katz noted landslides were part of federally declared flooding in 2023 and infectious disease (COVID-19) has precedent, but both would require clear rationale showing local impact and higher priority than other hazards. Several members suggested folding some items (for example, invasive-species effects on stream-bank erosion) into flood or fluvial-erosion profiles rather than creating separate top-hazard profiles.
Katz explained the plan's scoring matrix (probability 1— to 1% vs. 75%+, and impact 1— from negligible to severe) and said the town should identify a single primary lead for each mitigation action (for example, the emergency management director or the selectboard) before resubmitting to VM. That designation helps federal funding applications, he said: communities with an adopted, up-to-date hazard mitigation plan are eligible for FEMA grant programs following a declared disaster.
The board asked for an opportunity to review a reorganized hazard table and scoring rationale; members agreed to circulate comments within a week and requested Katz return a revised draft showing where items have been folded or expanded. Katz said he would remove the broad "severe summer weather" label and keep its mitigation strategies within relevant sub-hazard sections, and would draft language explaining any exclusions or fold-ins for VM.
The board also discussed practical mitigation items (shelters usable for extreme heat and cold, lead departments for culvert/bridge projects) and asked staff to map priorities to current project timelines.
