Architectural drawing of preferred design option for Emergency Operations Center. Courtesy/LAC
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
As Emergency Service Commander Beverley Simpson noted during the March 26 Los Alamos County Council meeting, “Los Alamos is not immune to disaster”.
The community has endured wildfires, floods, blizzards, hurricane-like winds and the COVID-19 outbreak. Each incident required an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Simpson said, however, there isn’t an actual EOC facility so operations were set up in “rooms of opportunity” such as training rooms inside either the police or fire departments.
During the March 26 meeting, council was asked to help change this situation by approving the submittal of a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in an amount not exceed $4.5 million to construct a single story EOC at Fire Station 3 in White Rock.
Council unanimously approved this request.
During an April 1 interview with the Los Alamos Daily Post, Simpson said the first step in the grant submittal process is to wait for FEMA to release a “notice of funding”. She explained that the grant is usually released in March, but the federal government’s continuing resolution has halted it. She added that typically FEMA awards these grants 45 days after the grant submittal deadline.
The second step, Simpson said, is to move the EOC higher on the County’s list of capital improvement projects. She said constructing the EOC is ranked 26th on the list, which contains 85 projects. It needs to be placed in the top five, to have the potential of receiving a state match of 25 percent.
“The goal is to receive 75 percent funding from FEMA and a 25 percent match from state and local funding,” Simpson explained.
Public Works Project Manager Russell Naranjo said at the March 26 meeting that due to the size of the grant amount being requested, it may need to come from two different grant cycles: the 2024 cycle and 2025 grant cycle.
“The grant and matching amount will be used to design and construct a state-of-the-art emergency operations center that meets the goals established by both this council and the design team,” Naranjo said.
Three different design options were shared with the council during the March 26 meeting but ultimately the single-story structure was the recommended and approved option. It was explained that this design option met most of the requirements on the FEMA grant matrix and met the criteria of OEM, while also being cost effective.
According to the March 26 staff presentation, the EOC would feature the following:
- Offices for up to four full-time employees;
- A main EOC room, official room and break-out rooms;
- Restrooms, a kitchenette; and
- A storage bay for EOC equipment and trailers.
During the April 1 interview, Simpson emphasized the need for this facility is already visible.
“We’ve had several disasters in the County and with continued climate change we will continue to see wildfires, extreme winter conditions and we want the County to be prepared. Currently there is no EOC in the County,” she said. “It is very important for planning purposes, to provide a static location, to provide training to departments that are going to have personnel in the EOC – an EOC is the eyes and ears of the disasters, and also the communications hub for federal, state and locals. In the event of future emergencies or disasters, OEM would be able to hold the outreach and coordination that the County needs in a dedicated facility. If the EOC is funded and constructed, OEM would be able to move forward with our emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation in the County. The EOC would improve our operations and address our limitations … it would be a dedicated and fully operational facility, and it would be secure … OEM has additional plans for the future as far as building a community emergency response team (and) enhancing our fire and police department type teams.”
The issue with just sticking to what is being used now – rooms of opportunity – is that these spaces are already in use and are made for the needs of the department that they are located in, Simpson added.
“The rooms are already in use and scheduled,” she said. “So, in the event of emergency if the rooms are in use, the events must be cancelled. All Departments have different operational needs – the fire department is doing fire operations and training, and the police department is providing law enforcement training and operations … whereas emergency operations are separate from them. We are supporting the response, working with legal, finance, transportation, and public safety to identify resources and needs and starting accounting processes. Emergency Management is for the County as a whole, to include the community, not just a single department.”
Having the EOC located by Fire Station #3, which is in White Rock, makes sense, Simpson added.
“It’s actually out of Los Alamos townsite proper and with the past fire and disaster events, we only have had to evacuate White Rock once,” she said. “It is usually Los Alamos proper that gets evacuated due to fire patterns and burn scars. We don’t anticipate having to evacuate that site, it has more defensible space. so it is a great site.”
Simpson added that the County already owns the land, there is ample parking and being located next door to the fire station gives EOC staff access to sleeping quarters and a kitchen, should the need arise.
Naranjo pointed out during the March 26 council meeting that the proposed EOC facility checks more things off the list for County’s strategic goals and priorities: quality governance, operational excellence and quality of life.
