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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEM September 2013 (2)GRANT COUNTY EMERGENCY DISASTER SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING GRANT COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT CENTER Lancaster, WI 53813 September 16, 2013 The Grant County Emergency Disaster Services Committee was called to order September 16, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. by Chairman Larry Wolf. The following members and personnel were present: EMERGENCY DISASTER SERVICES COMMITTEE: Bob Scallon, Vince Loeffelholz, John Beinborn, John Patcle, Larry Wolf and Lester Jantzen. GUESTS: Kelly Bird, Grant County Sheriff’s Office; Ron Sturmer, Grant County Coroner’s Office; Cindy Arnold; Sheriff Nate Dreckman; Chief Deputy Jack Johnson; David Timmerman, Grant County Herald Independent; Steve Braun, Grant County Emergency Management; Tonya White, Recording Secretary. Steve verified the agenda had been posted at the County buildings and was on the Grant County website. Vince seconded by Lester to approve the agenda as mailed. John B. seconded by Bob to approve the minutes. The bills were approved by Vince and seconded by Bob. All above motions carried. There are no Public Comments at this time. Under the Director’s Report Steve reported that the CDBG-EAP grant was sent out August 1, 2013. There will be a delay for the funding because other counties are applying for the same grant. Steve is hoping to see the funding in mid-October. This does pose a problem with the winter weather soon approaching for purchasing furnaces. The Long Term Recovery Committee did raise close to $45,000 from different sources. They do have a meeting Thursday, September 19, 2013 where Steve will be making a request for the funding to purchase the furnaces and reimbursing the LTRC after the EAP is approved. Steve estimated that there are about 20 homes that need furnaces replaced yet. Some residents have purchased furnaces on their own. There is some frustration from residents since FEMA is not involved and the grant is taking longer than hoped to be approved. Steve also advised the committee that the case manager provided by UMC has resigned and took another job. Her job consisted of working with individuals to help fill their needs. Steve will be working with Wisconsin VOAD to fill the Case Manager position ASAP. LUAD has set up temporary rental assistance for the elderly who were displaced. They are hoping to have them back in their apartments by the end of November. Also under Old Business Steve discussed FEMA Public Assistance. There are five full time FEMA representatives working out of the Boscobel City Hall. All of the kicks off meetings are done. Some of the Townships have maxed out their budgets. Estimated public sector damages are still a approximately $3.5 million. The municipalities should start seeing some money by the end of October. Steve also discussed Assistance to Firefighters Grants. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office met with engineers from the State Patrol a few weeks ago to discuss the problems they are having with communications. Comelec did find a problem with a piece of equipment on the Q Bee tower. It was working intermittently. Steve is hoping this will take care of the problem. Chief Deputy Jack Johnson also stated that Comelec found some static in the transformers on top of the Sheriff’s Office building. Those problems have been addresses and corrected. We will be monitoring the system for the next few weeks to see if the problems seem to resolve themselves. There will be some tower work required with this grant, such as new antennas and running coax cable which means it may be too late in the year to complete it. Steve is anticipating that the Assistance to Firefighter Grant applications will be coming out mid to late October. Any department can apply for the grant. Steve is anticipating doing the grants into November. Steve also noted that since the flooding in June he has been putting in substantial hours. The AFG grants also require long nights. He told the committee that he will have some substantial time built up by the end of the AFG grant period. Under New Business Steve discussed the 2014 Department Budget Request. Steve stated that there are not too many changes for the 2014 budget. On the expense side health insurance is up from last year. The budget showed an increase of $9,407, which was primarily for health insurance costs. Pat asked Steve what he was going to do if they asked for a no increase or 1% increase? Steve explained that since he went to a family plan and Tonya is on a different insurance than Julie was there is not a whole lot that can be cut. Steve explained the HRA costs, wages and health insurance make up the biggest share of the budget increase. Steve stated that he will be selling a few things over the winter to help compensate but their budget is already unrealistically tight. Steve also explained for several years there was a carryover account that helped keep the budget at zero. Then the carryover account was taken away by the executive committee and that put the department behind on the budget increase. In 2014 Steve anticipates that he should be able to sell a few boat motors and more weather alert monitors, but some of that will have to be used to offset 2013 overruns. Steve noted that the department is bringing in over $5 million dollars this year with FEMA aid and grants. Pat suggested going to 36 hour work weeks and charging for writing grants because there is an income problem in the department. Pat feels as a Town Chairman that he would rather pay a 1% fee to have Emergency Management write the grant for a new fire truck than have the fire department write the grant. Steve said that as in the past, he does not believe in charging for grant writing and worries that many fire departments would try to write the grants on their own; however if the committee decided to put forth a proposal that certainly was their prerogative and he would abide by it. Discussion followed. It was noted that we are one of the only Emergency Management offices in Wisconsin who do this service for our taxpayers. Pat stated that the only way to go to a zero budget is if we cut employee time to 36 hours a week but we won’t have time to write grants. John P. seconded by Bob made a motion to charge 1% to write grants. Discussion followed. Vince suggested sending the budget back to Steve and let him cut where it is necessary. Steve stated that charging the 1% needs to be defined better. Sheriff Dreckman stated charging the 1% would not impact the Sheriff’s Office too much. Sheriff Dreckman does feel that by charging it would affect the community and thinks in the long run we will lose. Pat foresees as Town Chairman that his fireman would pay to have the grant written. Steve said the grants have brought in roughly $600,000 last year. $300,000 of that was for the Sheriff’s Office communications and the rest of it was for a regional grant with the Southwest Technical College school districts. Larry asked if it was possible to charge townships for writing FEMA grants. Vince asked Steve if he would prefer to have the budget or for us to charge for writing grants. Lester feels that townships and fire departments are taking advantage of the office for writing grants. Steve reiterated that this is going to be a nightmare to try and keep track of especially for regional grants where there could be 40 applicants. Steve also stated it is a matter of what is fair and equitable. A grant for equipment might take a day to write and be written for $20,000; however a grant for a fire truck might take a few hours to write and bring in more than $500,000. Vince asked for a roll call vote: John Patcle-Yes John Beinborn –Yes Larry Wolf-No Bob Scallon-Yes Pat Schroeder-Yes Lester Jantzen-No Vince Loeffelholz-No Motion passed on a 4-3 roll call vote. Larry stated if we add $9000 to income it would bring it to a zero budget with a $407 increase. Pat made motion and Lester seconded to approve the 2014 budget be sent to the Executive Committee. Motion carried. It was motioned by Lester and seconded by John B. to adjourn until October 14, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. Motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Tonya White, recording Secretary