By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Houston County took a major step towards developing a hazardous mitigation plan Feb. 12 when county commissioners unanimously approved a motion to name Short, Elliott, Hendrickson, Inc. (SEH) as the consulting firm to draw up the plan.
Based out of Minneapolis, SEH received high praise from Emergency Services Coordinator Kurt Kuhlers for work the firm has conducted in southern Minnesota. Kuhlers noted that a committee made up of county department heads and township officials reviewed proposals presented by six different consulting firms. The committee narrowed the field to three firms and then interviewed representatives from each of the three finalists.
County Highway Engineer Marcus Evans, who was on the screening committee, has worked with SEH, and knows of other counties in southern Minnesota that utilized the consulting firm.
“During the interview process, the committee felt SEH would be using a more ‘hands-on’’ approach in developing our plan,” Kuhlers told the board. “Their proposal stated they would have the plan in place within 12 months and the committee felt even though their bid was higher ($85,000), they would actually be more cost effective because of the working knowledge they have of this area.”
Houston County is working to have a hazardous mitigation plan in place ASAP to help bring much-needed flood relief assistance for the area. Last month numerous news reports indicated businesses in Houston and Fillmore counties would not be eligible for certain FEMA grants and low interest loans because the counties did not have a hazardous mitigation plan in place.
In January U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, along with First District Congressman Tim Walz, urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to waive a paperwork requirement that could otherwise cause serious delays in the delivery of much-needed flood disaster assistance for the area. The following week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a similar plea to FEMA.
In letters presented to FEMA’s Administrator R. David Paulison, the three members of Congress and Minnesota’s Governor asked for a waiver of the federal requirement that local communities must first submit a “local hazard mitigation plan” before receiving funds under the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
Five of the flood-damaged counties in southeastern Minnesota do not have approved plans. The counties affected are: Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted and Wabasha.
“Putting together a hazardous mitigation plan is a very complicated process,” Kuhlers had earlier explained. “Winona County’s plan is over 280 pages.”
A plan includes information from the Assessor’s Office for property values, the Zoning Department, GIS mapping, the Highway Department to produce a vulnerability risk assessment for every bridge, road, structure, and piece of land in the county. The plan must determine the most vulnerable areas located in a flood plain, and if residences and businesses can be located in those areas.
Risk assessments must not only be conducted on natural disasters, i.e. floods, tornados, ice storms, or fires, but also manmade disasters, which can result from accidents occurring on roads, the railroad, or Mississippi River shipping channel, all of which are located within the county.
Kuhlers also reported developing the plan would not cost the county anything. Seventy-five percent of the cost will be picked up by the federal government, and the state has agreed to pick up the remaining 25 percent.
In other action:
County goes with CodeRED
After reviewing several other proposals, a five-person committee commended the county contract the services of CodeRED for a county-wide emergency notification system. The five-person board includes Kuhlers, Sheriff Doug Ely, Public Health Nursing Director Deb Rock, Highway Engineer Marcus Evans, and County Commissioner Tom Bjerke.
“In reviewing the flash flood event of August 2007, the single biggest issue was warning people of the impending danger,” Kuhlers said. “We couldn’t physically get the word out to people. A system like this would have made a very big difference.”
The cost of the CodeRED system would be $10,000 per year, which would provide the county with 30,000 minutes of notification time.
The CodeRED system can be activated to send a message out to all of the 9,800 households and businesses in the county with land lines, or any specific area, through Internet mapping capability for geographic targeting of calls when a more localized warning needs to be issued. Persons with cell phones can register their numbers as well and be part of the system.
The CodeRED system can be accessed from any Internet connection, and monitors how many persons picked up their phones to listen to the message, and how many answering machines recorded the message.
The system offers five administrative accounts, giving five different individuals or departments access to the system.
Assistant County Attorney hired
The county board unanimously approved the hiring of Araysa Ashmore for the fulltime position of Assistant County Attorney. Ashmore will be the second assistant county attorney working in the Houston County Attorney’s office. For the past year and one half, Ashmore has been working as a prosecutor for the city of Winona. County Attorney Rick Jackson felt she would be a good fit for his office. Ashmore will begin duties in mid-March.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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