Becker County seeks public input for hazard mitigation plan

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Becker County is going to be updating its hazard mitigation plan and is seeking comments from community leaders, businesses and residents to share how severe weather impacts their lives and property.

According to a news release, the Becker County Office of Emergency Management is going to be working with U-Spatial at the University of Minnesota-Duluth to assess natural hazards during severe weather events, like: straight-line winds, ice storms, tornadoes, wildfire and extreme temperature, and how they can minimize the damage of future events.

Deputy Adam Douglas, emergency management director for Becker County, said identifying and reducing the impact of future events makes cities and the entire county more resilient.

He also said they want community input from as many sources as possible.

“Businesses, obviously, and then even townships, school districts, any type of agency or entity like that who would like to provide something to us, we’d love to take any input we can get,” said Douglas. “And hopefully update our plan to better serve Becker County.”

The hazard mitigation plan would also cover the cities of: Audubon, Callaway, Detroit Lakes, Frazee, Lake Park, Ogema and Wolf Lake.

Becker County is required to update its hazard mitigation plan every five years to remain eligible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs.

Once the comments are reviewed and a preliminary draft of the new plan is created, Douglas said, they will be holding public information meetings for area residents to review the plan further, but those meeting dates are still being determined.

“Hopefully, we’ll have this (comment) portion of it wrapped up by the end of this month,” he said. “I’m already starting to get some good feedback from people in the county already.”

If anyone would like to submit comments to be included in the preliminary draft of the new Becker County hazard mitigation plan, they can call the Becker County Sheriff’s Office at: 218-847-2661, or email their comments to: adam.douglas@co.becker.mn.us.