Buckfield sets hearing for Hazard Mitigation Plan

BUCKFIELD — Town fathers will conduct a public hearing to consider the Oxford County Hazard Mitigation Plan, a blueprint for disaster response that could benefit areas of Buckfield.

Significant hazards identified in the plan include winter storms, flooding and ice jams, dam failure, drought and wildfire, earthquakes, and hazardous materials incidents.

Earthquakes actually are a medium risk for the area, according to Carol Fuller, a representative from the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments (AVCOG).  However, dam failures remain the “huge” risk for area towns, with over 80 dams in Oxford County.

The hearing will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 21, in the large meeting room of the Buckfield Municipal Building.  The regular biweekly meeting of the selectmen convenes at 6:30 on that evening, and this meeting will be recessed if it is not yet completed by the hearing time.

The Oxford County Hazard Mitigation Plan traces its origins to passage of the Disaster Mitigation Act, signed into law by the US Congress in 2000.

Fuller addressed the plan when she spoke to at a meeting of the Oxford County Municipal Officers Association in April, 2004.

“The important thing [in the Disaster Mitigation Act] from the perspective of all of the communities [in Oxford County] was that it said that towns, counties and states, had to have a hazard mitigation plan in place if they were going to be able to get hazard mitigation grants or pre disaster mitigation grants,” Fuller had told the assembled town officers.

Fuller stated that not having a hazard mitigation plan will not prevent eligibility for grant money to repair damage from disasters, but that it was intended to provide funds to bring things to a state that is “better than what you had before.”  Funds could also be used to make capitol improvements before a disaster struck.

“In a lot of cases,” Fuller said, “what you had before would only get washed away the next time you had a flood, or had some other kind of event.  The idea behind mitigation is to take steps before there is a disaster event so that the next time, hopefully, you will not have damage, or your damage will be a lot lower.”

According to Dan Schorr, Emergency Management Agency Director for Oxford County, responsibility for disaster planning had originally fallen to the individual towns.

“The initial idea was, those towns that wanted to participate, and write their own [plan], we would provide the grant money to do it,” said Schorr.  “That was about two years ago now.

“That went along fine until everybody started sitting down trying to do the work.  And then they said, ‘Hey I can’t do this, I need help.’  So then we said ‘OK, we’ll go to AVCOG.’”

AVCOG began working on the Oxford County plan in September 2003.  Both Schorr and Fuller said at the April meeting of the county municipal officers that AVCOG was a “good fit” for the project.  Fuller stated that AVCOG already had a “working relationship with many [Oxford County] towns” and that it had completed a similar plan for Androscoggin County only the year before.

Schorr stated that acceptance of the Hazard Mitigation Plan by a town does not necessarily obligate that town to address local issues singled out there for attention.  He also made clear any grant money made available to address those issues, should the town choose to do so, would not be tied to the town also having a current comprehensive plan.

The only hazards the plan identifies for pre-disaster improvement in Buckfield are drainage issues on Paris Hill Road, North Hill Road, and South Hill Road.

Schorr recently stressed the importance of acceptance of the plan “as is” by all 36 towns in Oxford County.  The plan has already been given “conditional approval” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency pending acceptance from the towns.

If towns give in to the temptation to try and add additional capitol improvement projects now, Schorr said, the “entire process would have to start all over again.”

Schorr believes that, at this late date, having already spent over two years on the plan, now is not the time to make alterations.

Schorr said that there would be an annual review period when towns can add new projects to the plan.  His office will notify the towns when that time comes.