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KITTITAS COUNTY <br />DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS <br />PUBLIC WORKS — BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />STUDY SESSION STAFF REPORT <br />STUDY SESSION DATE: September 12, 2022 <br />TOPIC: USDA Community Wildfire Defense Grant — Follow Up <br />ACTION REQUESTED: Direct Staff <br />LEAD STAFF: <br />Mark R. Cook <br />RECOMMENDATION: <br />Support grant application. <br />BRIEFING SUMMARY: <br />• Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a notice of funding <br />opportunity supporting implementation of actions contained within adopted <br />Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP). <br />• Public Works (PW) included an updated CWPP in the adopted Hazard Mitigation <br />Plan (HMP) with Resolution 2019-008. <br />• The current grant opportunity seeks to implement action items contained in <br />adopted CWPPs. <br />• The fire community has developed a proposed action plan with cost estimates <br />supporting grant application. <br />BACKGROUND: <br />PW completed a comprehensive hazard mitigation plan in 2019. The plan incorporates a <br />Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The plan contains numerous actions that <br />are now prime for implementation. The current USDA grant opportunity requires a 25 <br />percent match and is due October 5, 2022. The Board provided grant submittal <br />encouragement to staff during an August 22, 2022, briefing. <br />DISCUSSION: <br />Two high priority actions appear prime for implementation: "Transportation Corridor <br />Vehicle Fire Risk Reduction" and "Shaded Fuel Break Corridors". The grant team's <br />strategy (emerging) is to utilize primary evacuation corridors and "shade" them from fire <br />threat, utilizing preliminary corridor identification from local fire chiefs. <br />The fire community has prepared a proposed action plan and cost estimate implementing <br />priority actions contained in the adopted CWPP. The grant request is for approximately <br />$7.1 million. A recent communication from Emergency Manager Higashiyama suggest <br />the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is offering funding <br />towards the grant match obligation. At the time of briefing submittal, the exact amount <br />of DNR grant match is not determined. <br />Page 1 of 3 <br />Public Works "Work Session Staff Report", 2022 <br />