EAGLE RIVER — Keweenaw County has been awarded a $50,000 Rural Readiness Grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Rural Prosperity for a County Emergency Operations Center, Sheriff Curt Pennala announced in a Thursday morning release.

The Keweenaw Community Foundation and The Nature Conservancy in Michigan (TNC) are co-applicants on the grant, which the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) designed to support rural communities in planning and capacity building. In Keweenaw County, the grant award will support initial visioning and planning for a Keweenaw County Emergency Operations Center.

At the regular October, 2023 Keweenaw County Board meeting, Julia Petersen, with TNC and Robin Meneguzzo, with the KCF sought Board approval to move forward with the MDARD (Michigan Department of Agriculture Rural Development) Rural Readiness Grant Project.

A two-phased project was proposed, which included applying this Rural Readiness Grant funding to Phase I of the project. Phase I focuses on the development of plans for a brick-and-mortar Keweenaw County Emergency Operations Center. This grant is for $50,000 with a $10,000 match being divided by TNC, the KCF, and the Sheriff Office. The grant application was due on Nov. 2, 2023. A motion to approve the proposal was made by Trustee Bob DeMarois and supported by Trustee Randy Eckloff was unanimously approved.

Pennala said the Board has been addressing the county’s emergency services for several years, which includes some type of emergency operations center. The operations center is response to the increasing number of visitors to the county since the COVID-19 pandemic, when people sought safe places to social distancing. With the increase came increasing pressure on the county’s emergency services that prompted Pennala to organize the county’s search and rescue.

“I think we’re going to see continued growth in the Keweenaw,” said Pennala. “It’s great to see all the people coming up here, we just want to be able to support that growth.”

Through the Emergency Operations Center, the County aims to improve and enhance their emergency response capabilities by:

• Supporting in-person and virtual training and multi-agency exercises for law enforcement personnel and emergency response volunteers.

• Ensuring search and rescue and law enforcement training equipment is properly stored and easily accessible.

• Providing a space for the County and its partners to coordinate large-scale emergency or public health responses.

“I want to thank the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity for this grant and the Keweenaw Community Foundation and The Nature Conservancy for partnering with us on this project,” Pennala said. “This grant is a key first step in supporting our emergency personnel and volunteers to scope and plan for an Emergency Operations Center. This center will improve training and coordination across the County’s emergency response force, enhance search and rescue capabilities, and ensure Keweenaw County has the capacity to respond to large-scale emergencies.”

County Board Chairman Don Piche said that the demands on the county’s emergency response capabilities have been a concern to the Board for two years.

“This planning project is the first step in meeting critical needs that will benefit Keweenaw County, its residents, and visitors for years to come, and I am happy to see it moving forward,” Piche said.

“Keweenaw County is no longer the best kept secret in the Upper Peninsula, and the steady uptick in tourism over the last several years is stretching our emergency response resources,” said Robin Meneguzzo, executive director of the Keweenaw Community Foundation. “Once complete, this Emergency Operations Center will provide a path to grow our volunteer first responder ranks and better coordinate search and rescue and emergency responses with the five townships within Keweenaw County.”

Currently, the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s office employs six full-time law enforcement officers and four part-time officers, Pennala said. The remainder of the county’s emergency response services are managed by approximately 100 trained volunteers who respond to everything from wilderness search and rescue incidents to car crashes and house fires.

“The Keweenaw Peninsula offers some of the most remote and difficult terrain in Michigan, which makes search and rescue operations here all the more challenging,” said Petersen, Keweenaw Peninsula project manager for The Nature Conservancy in Michigan. “This grant is a big first step towards bolstering the emergency response capabilities of the dedicated law enforcement officers and volunteer first responders in Keweenaw County, which benefits residents and visitors alike.”

The planning process for the new Keweenaw County Emergency Operations Center will begin in the spring and continue into early 2025. Community meetings are planned throughout the year to get feedback from the public.