4.7 SR 06-01-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Sherburne County Multi -Hazard Mitigation Plan, 2020 Part B: Local Mitigation Capabilities Assessment 1. What plans, authorities, or policies are in place to help accomplish mitigation in your community? We have a new city comprehensive plan in place to help guide growth within the city, we have floodplain ordinances, and we have implemented CIP plans to lay out all of our road improvement projects for the next 20-30 years. 2. What staff (organizational capacity) are in place to help accomplish mitigation in your community? The Police Chief is the city's Emergency Manager, we have a city engineer and public works direct for road maintenance and design, a community development coordinator, an assistant fire chief that is a certified MN Emergency Manager, and a very engaged well working city council that backs the needs of its citizens and public safety departments. I feel strongly that the duties of the emergency manager for the City need to shift to a full-time dedicated Fire Chief, to allow the Chief of Police to focus on police department activities in times of crisis. What programs are in place to help accomplish mitigation in your community? Our schools practice tornado drills and participate in community events with law enforcement and fire. The fire department has an annual open house on fire safety and does fire prevention in the schools. The police department holds and coordinates annual Night to Unite events and involves all of the first -responding agencies to engage the community. The police and fire departments are also very active on Facebook to keep citizens informed and up to date on things happening in the community. 4. What funding or other resources are available to help accomplish mitigation in your community? We work closely with the county, DNR, and other necessary entities when it comes to roads, homes, and other projects in our shoreland management areas and flood plains. I would like to see more of a countywide effort as it relates to funding. I know there are many opportunities, but with so many roles for the Emergency Manager to serve, I don't have the time to search for, and undertake grant funding. 5. What program gaps or deficiencies do you feel exist that are a barrier to accomplishing mitigation in your community? I think there should be a much bigger push to the residents on the county's emergency alert systems, perhaps more interaction from county partners on assessing and educating the needs for the township. I would love to see some training session on this, and work to address using these systems countywide. Part C: Contributors & Time Seth W. Hansen, Assistant Fire Chief/City Councilman, i hour Joel Scharf, Chief of Police & Emergency Manager, i hour Page I K - io