Council hears mitigation plans, agrees to pay SWEPCO

By John Miller, 03/21/23 11:29 AM

PRESCOTT – Prescott’s City Council breezed through its March meeting Monday night, after starting with a 4 p.m. meeting to discuss planning and zoning.

Katie Hardy, with the Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District (SWAPDD), addressing the panel about the county’s mitigation plan. Hardy has been meeting with councils in the county, along with the Nevada County Quorum Court, on updating the plan. She said the hazard mitigation plan must be updated and approved every five years as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to be eligible for hazard mitigation funding should a disaster occur. However, this wouldn’t mean the county couldn’t get FEMA funds if a disaster hit, but it would mean it couldn’t get hazard funds.

Currently the SWAPDD is working on the risk assessment portion of the plan, as this takes the longest. The plan must meet FEMA requirements and define the plan area; it must also include profiles of each city in the county along with a capability assessment of each, such as services provided, including all types of utilities. It must also include a description of the town. Next is the hazard profile. Hardy said the plan focuses on natural hazards primarily, but because of the truck and train traffic in the county, chemical hazards are being included. The plan will include data on droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, flood, winter weather, dam failure, severe thunderstorms and hail. Data will be pulled from five sources going back to 1950.

From there, a database will be created showing how often each hazard occurs, the damage caused, deaths and injuries and property and crop damage. This will show the probability of each type of disaster’s occurring. Hardy pointed out grants can’t be sought to help with damage done to private property, only for city and county properties and buildings.

The final part of the plan is mitigation sources. Hardy said the SWAPDD will help the city and county find resources to help repair damage left by disasters.

Once the plan is done, it will be sent to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM), where it will be checked and edited. It will then be sent back to the county for corrections and be sent to ADEM after the corrections have been addressed. Once approved by ADEM, it will be forwarded to FEMA where the process starts all over again. She said it’s important to have community involvement, suggesting a committee be formed to address potential disaster scenarios and come up with strategies to deal with them. This, Hardy said, shows the county committee what’s important to the citizens. She offered to host workshops for those interested.

Councilman Howard Austin asked about finding money for safe rooms, suggesting the fifth and sixth grade building at McRae Middle School would be a good place for one. Hardy agreed to help write an application for this.

Mary Godwin, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said the EDO tried three times to get approval for a safe room while the new elementary school was being built, but was turned down each time as safe rooms weren’t a priority at the time.

This is something to look at in the future, Hardy said, as the most important thing is to get the plan done first and get it approved.

Prescott Mayor Terry Oliver brought up the need for a solid waste management authority board as the county is looking to buy equipment for the landfill and expecting the city to help pay for it. he said the Nevada County Judge is over the landfill, adding the board would be made up of seven members, the judge, three members of the Nevada County Quorum Court and either three members of the council, or the mayor and two councilmen. He asked for volunteers, getting none. The topic was tabled until the April meeting.

Oliver asked for the council to approve a one-time payment of $1.2 million to SWEPCO for the winter storm of 2021 to help reduce the monthly payments, which are around $18,000. City Accountant Carl Dalrymple said he and office manager Bruce Bean needed the council’s authority to take the money from savings and make the payment. The city’s certificates of deposit, he said are earning 0.5 percent interest, while SWEPCO is charging the city 7.5 percent interest on the bill. The council approved the measure.