Chelan County Begins Process To Update Hazard Plans

Chelan County will begin the process of updating its Hazard Mitigation and Community Wildfire Protection plans next week.

On Wednesday (March 6), the County will hold the first of numerous meetings to assess the area’s vulnerability to the various natural hazards and evaluate an array of actions and projects for reducing key risks.

Chelan County Natural Resource Specialist, Lisa Dowling, says the meetings will be overseen by a steering committee comprised of local stakeholders.

"This will be the first wave of getting these steering committee meetings going. A lot of the initial meetings will likely see us reviewing where we are at with our risk modeling efforts, as well as setting ground rules and expectations for how these meetings will proceed in the future."

Dowling adds the steering committees will meet regularly throughout the planning process and the majority of the meetings will be open to the public.

"We anticipate there to be upwards of six to eight steering committee meetings over the course of the next year. In the midst of those we'll also have several annex workshops for fire districts and local cities to help them write the components of the plans that will be specific to their jurisdictions."

The County updates its Hazard Mitigation and Community Wildfire Protection plans every five years to remain compliant with Federal Emergency Management Act regulations which provide continuing eligibility for disaster relief funds.

The federal government requires the County to have its plans updated by the end of this year.

Next Wednesday's meeting will take place at the Confluence Technology Center, 285 Technology Way in Wenatchee from 12:30 to 2 p.m. for the Hazard Mitigation Plan and 2:30 to 4 p.m. for the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

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