County Plan
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
During Tuesday afternoon’s Lyon Emergency Planning Committee meeting, board members went over the hazard-mitigation plan for Lyon County.
The plan is a lengthy planning process to reduce the impact of a disaster in a community to reduce future losses.
“Once the plan is approved, Lyon County will qualify for grants,” Steve Samuelson, Lyon County zoning administrator and flood plain manager said. Samuelson said there is state and federal grant money out there, but Lyon County can’t tap into it until the mitigation plan is completed.
The mitigation plan covers the public planning process; jurisdiction participation information; risk assessment; mitigation strategy; and plan maintenance. The plan presented to the LEPC board Tuesday is only a draft. The final draft will be more than 100 pages long, Samuelson said.
Samuelson said federal and state grant money is out there to improve infrastructures to minimize the impact of disasters such as flood and ice storms.
“They’ll give you grant money to reduce the damage,” Samuelson said. “But to get that, you have to have a plan.”
That is where the county’s hazard-mitigation plan comes in.
“We’re trying to write a plan to get money to reduce the losses in disasters,” Samuelson said.
Once Lyon County qualifies for grant money, individual towns in the county have to apply for a share of it. It is not automatically given, Samuelson said.
“They will be qualified to ask for the money,” Samuelson said. “We are making one plan and asking every community in Lyon County to come on board with us so that all of the jurisdictions in Lyon County can qualify to apply for these and other grant sources.”