County to write new disaster plan

County to write new disaster plan

Quorum court agrees to supplement FEMA grant for local emergency management

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County will be working on writing a new disaster mitigation plan with the help of a federal grant.

The Quorum Court approved appropriating $10,000 as its part of a matching $40,000 FEMA grant to help the county EMA office update its plan, which expired last year.

EMA Coordinator Bud Spears told officials that former coordinator Ronnie Rogers was working on updating the plan shortly before he died. “During that time when Mr. Rogers was sick he was in the process of doing the plan. But as he got sicker, it kind of fell by the wayside,” Spears said. “When I took the job, the Department of Homeland Security let me know that our mitigation plan had expired.”

A mitigation plan identifies all potential hazards and threats in the county and lays out a response plan in the event of a disaster.

Spears said he got cost estimates from companies who specialize in writing these types of plans and that the lowest price was from Trigon Associates for $40,000.

“The people who gave us that price were the same people who wrote the original plan,” Spears said. “So I feel very comfortable with what they have to say.”

County Treasurer Charlie Suiter said Trigon has extensive experience working with counties in Arkansas.

“This company does threequarters of the plans for Arkansas counties anyway,” Suiter said. “So they really know how to do this.”

Spears said the process of writing the plan will take about a year.

“We will have to go through four or five public meetings to get input from the public,” Spears said.

Spears said the plan will also have to be more specific to Crittenden County this time.

“One of the stipulations was that FEMA wanted the plans cut by 100 pages and the fat cut out and list the hazards and how we are going to respond to them,” Spears said. “They don’t want it cookie cutter. They want it specific to Crittenden County. So they will have to do a little more work this go-round. They will get with us. I told the judge it will be a good fit.”

By Mark Randall