Daily Herald

A bill creating an account to help local governments pay for disaster mitigation passed out of a Utah Senate committee Tuesday morning.

House Bill 305, sponsored by Rep. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, was inspired by the plight southern Utah County cities like Woodland Hills find themselves in now that the threat of September’s massive Bald Mountain and Pole Creek fires are over. The small cities are struggling to come up with the money needed to pay for projects that would prevent post-fire dangers like mudslides and debris flow.

The bill would feed $2 million from Utah’s general fund into the disaster mitigation fund each year until it capped out at $10 million.

McKell told members of the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee that the bill is needed, in part, because cities are capped as to how much they are allowed to save, making it nearly impossible for small cities to be able to fund mitigation projects post-disaster. There is not currently any fund that allows cities and counties to apply for state disaster mitigation funding.

Communities could apply for the funds if either the President of the United States or the governor of Utah declared a state of emergency.

Should the bill pass, the money would be appropriated for the fiscal year beginning July 1 — too late to do much good for Utah County cities that need assistance from Pole Creek and Bald Mountain fires. Spring runoff is when danger will be highest for mudslides and debris flows coming off the burn scar.

“I wish it would help Woodland Hills,” McKell said. “It will be a little too late.”

State Forester Brian Cottam spoke in favor of the bill, saying that it’s actually easiest for local governments when the fire is actually burning. The hard part comes later.

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