Emergency management’s 22-23 budget reviewed

The Montgomery County Emergency Management Commission met in regular session on Dec. 21. The first action item was setting commission policy on property and inventory. EMA coordinator Brian Hamman said the action was largely routine.
“This basically is one of those things that we have to comply with for federal grant guidelines. It’s largely based on a policy in place for another county,” Hamman advised.
The commission approved the commission property and inventory policy. Also on the agenda was a hazardous material response/clean-up agreement with Environmental Solutions Inc. Hamman said the county has discussed an agreement like this for many years, even prior to Hamman taking over the EMA position, but it had never been done as it involved a retainer for services they may or may not need. However, Hamman said there was a need for an agreement to be pursued.
“The state is kind of cracking down on the counties that don’t have individual contracts, despite the fact there is nothing in the Iowa Code that says we are required to, and there are no guidelines on what an official hazmat contract would look like,” said Hamman.
Hamman added that he’s gone back and forth with the state, and the proposed contract was essentially to appease the state and fill in Montgomery County on their map to show that they have a hazmat contract.
“I have come up with a basic agreement with ESI of Omaha. We’ve used the company locally for some incidents, and several of our factories and businesses contract with them for services. The contract will allow us to use their services if we need them, and there is no yearly retainer fee. If there is an incident, they will bill the responsible party; however, if there is no responsible party, we will be billed, which is no different than what we have done before.”
Hamman said an incident with no responsible party would be rare, and typically, the incidents would be at a factory or on the rail lines. Hamman said they do run a risk if the incident is on a highway, but insurance would still cover the cost for a clean-up.
“This basically checks the box for us with the state. If we have an incident, it doesn’t mean we have to call them. We can call the state for a different team. Union County and Adams County have both contracted with ESI,” commented Hamman.
Also, Hamman said the agreement had nothing to do with the proposed Summit Carbon pipeline. The commission approved the hazardous materials response/clean-up agreement with ESI Inc.
The commission also reviewed the EMA’s FY 2022-23 budget. Hamman broke down the numbers for the commission.
“As far as the salary, I have gone off of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors 5% increase for budgeting purposes. You guys are my bosses, not the supervisors, so you can change it to whatever you see fit,” Hamman said.
As far as the rest of the budget, Hamman said the only other line items that changed were FICA, IPERS, and insurance. Hamman proposed a budget of $199,921 for EMA only. Last year’s budget was $195,426, with a proposed budget increase of 2.3% overall.
The commission took no action on the budget amendment, and instead set a public hearing for 9 a.m. on Jan. 7 to finalize the proposed budget.
Hamman also commented on the unique situation the county faced on Dec. 15, with the derecho that swept through Southwest Iowa. Overall, Hamman said he felt the county fared very well.
“With every storm there are issues brought up. In Stanton, we found that we had a tornado siren that was inoperable, but that has been fixed. I don’t think any of the communities sustained any major damage to infrastructure, so we don’t have to push for public assistance through FEMA. Also, it was hard to attribute all of the damage directly to the storm,” said Hamman. “After it passed, I drove down 270th Street and it was clear. An hour later, I got a call from dispatch that said there was a barn in the road. I went back down there, and there was. That wind was very intense. We also had a few issues with our radio system, as the wind moved our microwave dishes in some places. However, those have also been realigned, and there was no physical damage. And while the main system was temporarily affected, we didn’t lose the radio entirely.”