Photo from a friend of raging Gila River on Sunday
Photo from a friend of raging Gila River on Sunday
By Mary Alice Murphy
At this morning's Grant County Commission special meeting, the members added an item to the agenda— an emergency declaration—as allowed by the Open Meetings Act.
County contracted Attorney Ben Young of Mynatt, Martinez and Springer PC, who was present at the meeting, confirmed that the OMA allows for emergency action items. During the meeting he drafted a resolution for the declaration.
He noted that the OMA also requires that a "piece of correspondence be submitted to the Attorney General to give the reason why the item was added at the last minute. When the state declares an emergency, and I am confident the state will declare this an emergency, as your Acting County Manager Randy Villa spoke to Lt. Gov. Howie Morales this morning, the declaration for the area is generally accepted."
Young said the declaration had addressed items, such as the emergency blocking access to medical care, to law enforcement, to emergency services and to food, as well as children not being able to get to school.
District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings, whose district was hard hit by this emergency, asked if that would include property owners and businesses getting access to FEMA and NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) emergency funding for repairs, such as to irrigation ditches. "The ditches are filled with mud, and although the farmers do not need to irrigate right now, as they have had plenty of precipitation, within maybe three weeks they will need to irrigate again."
Young said he had written the declaration broadly so that funding could be accessed.
District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards added that the Gila River has washed away push up diversions and put water into fields where there normally is no water, because it is used for grazing.
Villa said that when the county did the emergency declaration on the Black Fire, "we submitted requests to agencies for funding. We will help these folks out. The Soil and Water Conservation Districts may also be able to help them, as they did for the Black Fire."
District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked if private residents would be allowed to get funding, because there is damage to public and private property.
Young confirmed they would. He then read the resolution, R-22-45, Declaration of Emergency in Grant County by the Board of Commissioners, due to flooding.
[Editor's Note: The Beat has requested a copy of the resolution and will post it when it is received.]
Commissioners approved the resolution unanimously.