City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: SEPTEMBER 2, 2015
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER/s/
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Consideration of a Grant Application to the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program.
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ISSUE: Consideration of a grant application to the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program in order to update the Northern Virginia Hazardous Mitigation Plan
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
(1) Authorize the City as a participating jurisdiction in the submission of the grant application and;
(2) Authorize the City Manager to execute all the necessary documents that may be required.
BACKGROUND: In order to apply for Mitigation Grants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires communities to have a hazard mitigation plan. The Northern Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan was last approved in February 2012 and must be updated on a 5 year cycle. The Northern Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan covers the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William; the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park; the towns of Dumfries, Haymarket, Occoquan, and Quantico (Prince William County), Clifton, Herndon, and Vienna (Fairfax County), and Hamilton, Hillsboro, Leesburg, Lovettsville, Middleburg, Purcellville, and Round Hill (Loudoun County). The Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management will act as the program manager to the 2017 update of the regional plan, and will apply for Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant funds for the purpose of this update. The City of Alexandria has been a participating community in the Northern Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan and has contributed to plan updates in the past.
DISCUSSION: In order to update the plan, Fairfax County plans to apply for $150,000 in federal funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program. These funds will be used to pay for contract work to update the plan. Although Fairfax County will coordinate the update of the plan, Alexandria will participate in the plan update process. As part of the application, each participating jurisdiction submitted a letter of intent to Fairfax County to commit as a participating jurisdiction in the Northern Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan Update. Because Council was not in session, the City of Alexandria’s letter of intent was subject to formal City Council approval (as detailed in the memo sent to City Council dated August 7th 2015).
FISCAL IMPACT: The Alexandria Fire Department will not be receiving any funds should this grant be awarded. Instead, Fairfax County will be the fiscal agent and monitor expenses paid to the contractor hired to update the plan, and Alexandria will directly benefit from the update of the plan. The Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant requires a 25% local match, which can be funded using in kind resources. The 25% match would be spread among all participating jurisdictions so Alexandria’s portion of the match would be approximately $5,000 of in-kind services. The Fire Department would not incur additional costs because the salary of emergency management staff paid out of the General Fund would qualify for this in-kind match contribution. If the grant is awarded, funding would be available in the summer of 2016.
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