Additions made to county mitigation plan

WORLAND – A group of 14 city and county employees identified three potential additions to Washakie County’s plan in the Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan at a meeting Monday afternoon.

The plan, driven by the 2000 Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA) plan, needs to be updated every five years to maintain grants and was last updated in 2011.

The three new actions to consider adding to the plan are: the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) from the federal level that would replace the weather-radio program, storm drain backflow preventers and the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

Some of these projects, like the CWPPP, are already in the works and waiting for funding, Fire Chief Chris Kocher said.

The group also classified each possible new addition by priority. The IPAWS was classified on the priority list as medium, the storm drain backflow preventers was classified as high on the priority list and the CWPP was classified as high on the priority list.

“It’s community preparedness to do what we need to do in an event of an emergency. It’s important to work together and be prepared for things we hope don’t happen,” Washakie County Homeland Security Director Mike Orona said in reference to the hazard mitigation plan.

Before identifying the three potential additions, the group of attendees went over 2011’s plan and retracted hazards that no longer need to be in the plan and gave insight to why some hazardous mitigation plans have not been completed.

Some of the hazard identified in the 2011 plan, like flooding related to relocating the Public Works building, will be kept as ongoing, but Superintendent of Public Works Brain Burky said, “It’s looking more and more like we’re going to reinvest in that site, possibly.”

Another hazard identified was the hazardous materials in relation to relocating the fire station out of the railroad line are because it places it at risk of exposure to hazardous material in Worland. The estimated project completion date was 2006, but has not been completed because of funding. The group decided to keep it in the plan as ongoing.

Jeff Brislawn with Amec Foster Wheeler, who directed the meeting, needs to go to several other counties to address their plan, but local adoption is set for January 2017.

While no public was present for the evening meeting set aside for public comment, there is still an opportunity for input.

Any interested persons who want to complete an online survey that asks questions about personal concern can go to the Washakie County homepage and follow the link or type in http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/region6survey to participate.

So far, 63 individuals region-wide in Big Horn, Park, Washakie and Hot Springs counties, have completed the survey, which asks questions on areas of personal concern for hazardous mitigation. Twenty-one of the 63 survey respondents were from Washakie County.