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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEM November 2013GRANT COUNTY EMERGENCY DISASTER SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING GRANT COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT CENTER Lancaster, WI 53813 November 4, 2013 The Grant County Emergency Disaster Services Committee was called to order November 4, at 1:00 p.m. by Chairman Larry Wolf. The following members and personnel were present: EMERGENCY DISASTER SERVICES COMMITTEE: Vincent Loeffelholz, John Patcle, John Beinborn, Lester Jantzen and Bob Scallon. Pat Schroeder was excused. GUESTS: Steve Braun, Emergency Government, Tonya White, Recording Secretary, Dallas Dietzel, Dickeyville EMS and Steve Tranel, Grant County Firefighter Association President. Steve Braun verified the agenda had been posted at the County Clerk’s Office and Courthouse by Linda Gebhard and it was posted on the county website. John B. second by Lester approved the agenda. Vince second by Bob approved the minutes. Bob second by John B. approved the September and October bills. All above motions carried. Under Public Comments, Steve Tranel, President of Grant County Fire Association was present and spoke of how the Association was against the 1% fee for writing Assistance to Firefighter Grants. Steve T. stated that regional grants sponsored by Fire and EMS Departments have helped to upgrade the communication system for Grant County by getting repeaters, a microwave voting system and generators. Even though local departments apply for this funding, Grant County has by far been the largest benefactor from the AFG program. Dallas Dietzel of Dickeyville EMS spoke against the 1% fee as well. Dallas said the Dickeyville EMS will no longer sponsor regional grants and that it is a slap in the face for all Fire and EMS who sponsored these grants. Jacob Schultz of the Grant County EMS Association sent a letter that was passed around at the meeting outlining the EMS Association's opposition of the grant fee. The EMS association feels that the proposal is just shifting the responsibility for funding the emergency management office from the county to the volunteer fire and EMS departments, which ultimately does nothing to benefit the Grant County taxpayer. Jacob also pointed out that the bigger grants go toward communications and if the money wasn’t awarded it would have to be taken out of the County budget. John B. explained why he feels there should be a fee and also stated they are willing to look at different options but nothing has been brought up. Bob brought up that he felt we should perhaps not be charging our own departments, but we should charge Jo Daviess County and anyone outside of Grant County. John B. asked if there are other counties where grants have been written for in the past. Steve B. said he has done communications grants for Jo Daviess and Crawford Counties in the past. Steve B. explained that there have been eight Federal Disaster Declarations since he has been here and they blow the Emergency Management budget out of the water and you can’t predict when a disaster is going to happen. FEMA aid helps municipalities but not our office. John B. feels by charging a fee this would support funding. Larry said that Todd Infield, Corporation Council, isn't comfortable that charging a 1% fee is legal. He suggested doing it on a fee basis; for example $50/hour. Todd doesn’t feel that we can charge fire departments for writing grants for county purposes. Larry would rather see charging for out of county grants we write. Larry said the decision has to be made today since the grant period has already opened. Steve B. explained that things aren't as clear cut in most cases. For example, the communications grant written for Crawford County last year was actually written by a Prairie du Chien Firefighter and Sheriff's Deputy and Steve just proofread the grant and worked on the narrative for a while.....perhaps two hours work was involved. Steve B. said if we consult other agencies outside Grant County like that, he would agree with charging an hourly fee. Steve B. said he will be writing a grant for Wildland Firefighting Gear that is in conjunction with Richland, Crawford and Iowa Counties. The issue would be how we arrive at what we charge for that, if we can charge at all, since the other county emergency management directors and the Wisconsin DNR Forestry Rangers would be helping with getting the information for the grant as well. It's more of a collaborative effort, which is exactly what wins points when FEMA is scoring these regional applications. Steve B. said he has been approached by a few departments outside of Grant County asking if he would write their department grant. Steve feels it would be appropriate to charge those departments a fee. Very few county Emergency Management Offices write these sort of grants and Steve feels since he has assisted with writing grants that is one reason why Grant County is one of the top grant awardees. John B. asked Steve T. and Dallas how they feel. Steve T. and Dallas both feel that if there is a charge for writing a grant they would not sponsor a regional grant. Steve T. said that budgets are tight everywhere and that this could be a lot of money for some departments. Dallas said that they get equipment and share it with other departments so the grants are not just beneficial for just his department but others around the county. Vince asked Steve B. how much money we would bring in writing grant for outside agencies. Steve said he doesn’t know an exact number but charging an hourly fee might only bring in $1000. It would just depend on how many outside agencies were willing to pay the fee. Under Old Business, Steve updated the committee on the flood that occurred in June. Steve said they got the contract from the State today and now all they need to do is get quotes. We have gotten applications already and just did one application for both funds and will put them in the program that suits them best. CDBG is income based and those people that are over we can’t squeeze into the CDBG program will likely be helped from the Long Term Recovery Committee funds. LTRC money has been used to replace furnaces and now they are hoping to reimburse those people who already replaced their furnace and make repairs to home for necessary living areas. Steve reported that the FEMA Public Assistance staff is still working out of the temporary office we established on the second floor of Boscobel City Hall. We have not seen any checks yet but we are hoping we will in the next few weeks. There are several Towns that are worried about how they are going to pay the bills that are flood related. The government shutdown has slowed the process down some, with FEMA being a federal agency. Although the FEMA staff working locally were still working, many of the administrative staff at the central office in Madison were furloughed, leading to a backlog. Regarding the Communications Grant, Steve reported that he met with Sheriff’s Office staff this morning and drew up the request for proposal (RFP) for the Communications Upgrade. The RFP is due December 4th in hopes that a vendor will be chosen soon. Under the 1% fee for grant assistance John B. feels everyone is in agreement to charge a flat fee but is worried it won’t be enough. Lester likes the idea of doing anything outside of Grant County excluding regional grants that are in collaboration with the county. Lester motioned $75.00/hour for any grant written for individual departments outside of Grant County. Motion second by Bob. Roll call vote was taken: John P.: NO Lester: YES Bob: YES John B.: YES Vince: YES Larry: YES Motion passed 5-1 Under New Business AFG has already been talked about. Steve commented that it is going to be very hard to get everyone's grants done before the December 6 deadline, since they are also still balancing work from the summer's flooding and some "end of the year" projects for the state. Steve and Tonya will do their best to get everyone in. Steve spoke with personnel from the Sheriff’s Office this morning about another communications grant proposal. They would like to put up more receiver sites. Steve said the grant would need to be sent in before the next committee meeting and he would like the members thoughts on doing another communications grant since there is a matching fund needed. Steve briefly explained what they were thinking would help improve radio signal coverage in some of our problem areas. Vince moved and John B. second for Steve to write and submit the grant before the application period ends. Motion carried. The grant would be brought to the County Board before acceptance. Our department has been offered to be a part of the AmeriCorps Disaster Preparedness Project. The main objective is to have this person increase community volunteer outreach and the department's volunteer auxiliary program. It is a part time position and will start in January with AmeriCorps and the state covering the costs. We have had one application and it is an individual from Platteville who has a very impressive resume. Lester made the motion second by Vince to approve participating in the program. Motion carried. The State has redone the hazardous response teams and is proposing Grant County doing a Level A team. The contract has been sent to Corporation Counsel to look over and Steve is sure that Todd will give input once he has a chance to look it over. All responding personnel would be covered under the State’s workers compensation. The advantage of this is the State would help us build a team in Grant County. Steve explained the differences between a Level B team and Level A team and what they can properly handle. The State would like a Level A team in our area and Steve feels it would improve the collaboration and build up our hazmat assets. Steve proposed it should go in front of the county board and have a representative from the State there to do a presentation. Vince and Bob both said they would like to have the state representative come to the County Board meeting. Steve will contact Linda Gebhard and have it put on the agenda for the next County Board meeting. It was motioned by Lester and second by Vince to adjourn to December 9, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Tonya White, Recording Secretary