County adopts new hazard mitigation plan
By Ted Pennekamp
The Crawford County Board approved of adopting the Crawford County Multi-Hazards Mitigation Plan for 2019-2023 at its regular meeting Tuesday morning.
Crawford County Emergency Government Director Jim Hackett said the plan is updated every four years and needs to be adopted in order for the county to get FEMA funds when needed.
The county participated in the planning process, along with other local units of government to help prepare the plan through the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission at no cost to the county, said Dave Bonifas, community development planner with the MRRPC.
“We identified 19 natural hazards and two man-made hazards in the county,” said Bonifas. “The man-made hazards include river traffic and railroad traffic.” He explained that there is a significant amount of river and railroad traffic, both of which transport toxic materials on occasion.
The number one natural hazard in terms of lives lost is extreme heat. “Extreme heat kills more people than all of the other hazards combined,” said Bonifas. “Most people don’t realize that.”
In other business, the board approved of supporting a resolution to expand a commitment to health and wellness for county employees.
“Our goal is to improve employee wellness throughout the county,” said Public Health Nurse Michelle Breuer. “When employees of all businesses feel better, they do better.”
In adopting the resolution, the board showed its support for the Healthy Roots Coalition and recognizes that a healthy, thriving workforce reduces health care costs, reduces incidence of disease and disability thus leading to a more productive workforce.
In further business, the board approved sending letters to the governor and the state legislature in favor of creating a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional redistricting plans.
Ron Leys, of Prairie du Chien, as a representative of the Crawford County Democratic Party, spoke to the board about the redistricting plans that occur after each census every 10 years. Leys said the party in power during these times makes redistricting plans in secret, and the party not in power has no say in the matter. Over the decades, the party in power has always defined the voting districts in such a way as to give an advantage to their party regarding who gets elected to various offices.
Gerrymandering of voting districts has been an issue in the state for many years, and Leys cited Iowa as a state that has a nonpartisan commission define their voting districts. This nonpartisan approach has worked very well in Iowa and other states for a long time, and the residents and both parties of such states are quite satisfied, Leys said.
