2022-08-22-minutes-public-works-study-session

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KITTITAS COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS PUBLIC WORKS — BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS STUDY SESSION STAFF REPORT STUDY SESSION DATE: August 22, 2022 TOPIC: USDA Community Wildfire Defense Grant ACTION REQUESTED: Direct Staff LEAD STAFF: Mark R. Cook RECOMMENDATION: Support grant application. BRIEFING SUMMARY: • Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a notice of funding opportunity supporting implementation of actions contained within adopted Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP). • Public Works (PW) included an updated CWPP in the adopted Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) with Resolution 2019-008. • The current grant opportunity seeks to implement action items contained in adopted CWPPs. • Maximum grant award is $10,000,000. • Grant match requirement is 25 percent (25%). • PW is working fire response agencies and emergency management preparing a grant application. BACKGROUND: PW completed a comprehensive hazard mitigation plan in 2019. The plan incorporates a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The plan contains numerous actions (EXHIBIT 1) that are now prime for implementation. The current USDA grant opportunity requires a 25 percent match and is due October 7, 2022. DISCUSSION: Two high priority actions appear prime for implementation: "Transportation Corridor Vehicle Fire Risk Reduction" and "Shaded Fuel Break Corridors". The grant team's strategy (emerging) is to utilize primary evacuation corridors and "shade" them from fire threat, utilizing preliminary corridor identification from local fire chiefs. A cost per acre will be developed and applied to prioritized corridors creating the basis for grant request. PW will evaluate a third action: "Road Access" determining if there is sufficient time to put a proposal together meeting the October 7 1 deadline. Page 1 of 3 Public Works "Work Session Staff Report", 2022