Pre-Disaster Mitigation
Hi folks, just a few notes and a quick update.
First of all, in the past couple of weeks we have picked up six more counties/communities indicating interest in participating in the program. Please help me welcome Hill, Blaine, Phillips, Cascade, Chouteau and Meagher to the Montana PDM planning effort. Our friends at BLM are assisting us with funding for these six and we are going out on bid for both FEMA PDM Plans and separate BLM Wildland Fire Plans for each of these counties. Once approved, these counties along with many others of you, will be eligible for pre and post disaster mitigation money from FEMA and wildland fire project grants from BLM and probably other federal agencies. These six bring our total to forty-two counties/communities which are participating or have already had their plans approved. Attached is a GIS produced map (map.pdf) of the counties, participating, approved and not participating in patriotic red, white and blue. If there are corrections please advise..
FEMA approved plans are:
Valley
Sheridan
Petroleum
Fort Peck
Daniels
Broadwater
Approved by State and at FEMA in final review:
Butte/Silverbow
Madison
Roosevelt
In MT DES review are
Beaverhead
Fergus
Based partially on the entrance of these six counties we will conduct another PDM Planning Workshop on 24 and 25 August (yeah I know I said I would never do another). In spite of previous rumors the Workshop will be held in Helena rather than Billings. It will be in the Helena Armed Forces Reserve Center, Fort Harrison. For those of you who might want to inquire about billeting on post that phone number is 324-3355. The participants will be from those six above counties except Vince, who has already been through the course twice, and the successful contractors for the six new communities. Also in attendance will be members of the Bureau of Land Management as well as any other counties/communities or contractors that may want to participate in the future planning process. There is no charge, however I have no money to help with anyone's expenses. The instructors will be Wade Nofziger and Doug Bausch from FEMA, Rich Petaja, Jerry Smithers, John Horn and myself from the Department of Military Affairs. Please let me know by name who will be attending so I can make arrangements for your student materials.
Another subject that I would like to touch on is your required 25% PDM match (non BLM funded plans). As you recall and as your county commissioners pledged to, you must show your match at the time of request for final payment. Most of you have been doing a great job. It matters not to me how you show it. You can use a spreadsheet as most do, show copies of timesheets, use a ledger or whatever. The point is, salaries and mileage will mostly do it; it just needs to be documented. Another point is, please dont stop with your 25%. If you can show more than 25% then it will help me help others that may not be able to quite come up to 25%.
The Pre-Disaster Mitigation Competitive (PDMC) program, which is the national grant program that you will be eligible for once your plan is FEMA approved, will probably be announced this fall. This pending announcement will be just in time for many of you to participate. As I have said before don't wait until the program is announced to decide if you have a project. You should be working up a scope of work now and gathering documentation. If you are not sure if it is eligible (you can't buy fire trucks) give me a call, usually I will know, if not I will contact FEMA. What I don't want you to be doing is to be working on something that we cannot get approved..
The next subject is the deadline for plan submission or your plan to arrive at my office is now 30 November 2004. I have asked for, pleaded, begged, and groveled for and been granted all of the extensions possible. The FY-02 money (non BLM money) which is what is funding most of you have must be closed out and accounted for by the end of December 2004 and that is a lot of paperwork so that is it, final, end of subject, in my office, done deal, not later than 30 November 2004. I really would like to have it sooner in case I need to return it to you for corrections.
To close on a serious note, a couple weeks ago I attended my annual National State Hazard Mitigation Officers Workshop and after hearing the status of many of the other states I believe we can be quite proud of what we are doing in Montana. Petroleum County was one of the first plans approved in the Nation and Fort Peck was the first Tribal plan to be approved in all FEMA Region VIII and percentage wise those of you who are working on your plans place us far ahead of most states and territories. Keep up the good work; I am very proud of you and it is you that makes my job so very rewarding.
Larry B. Akers
Montana Hazard Mitigation Officer
1900 Williams St/P.O. Box 4789
Helena, MT 59604-4789
406-841-3960 ph
406-841-3965 fax
lakers@mt.gov
