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Date: 11/10/2021
HATFIELD – Mimi Kaplan, a senior planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, began her discussion of the Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) proposed for the town, by getting to the point: dollars and cents.
Kaplan said, “Planning is less expensive than cleaning up disasters.”
Kaplan appeared before the Select Board via Zoom, to discuss the disaster mitigation planning process. According to a handout at the meeting, planning for a disaster benefits the town through the better use of limited resources, and makes the town eligible for funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Hatfield’s last HMP was drawn up in 2016, and this plan will also be in use for five years, if the Select Board votes to institute it.
“The committee evaluated the effectiveness of the existing hazard mitigation plan,” Kaplan said, “and we prioritized the local strategies.” The purpose of the HMP is to lessen the long-term consequences of natural disasters. Steps in the process include identifying and assessing hazards and critical infrastructure, the mitigation strategies in place and proposed and a schedule for implementing any changes. Kaplan said, “Most of the hazards are medium risk for the town.”
Some of the hazards most likely to impact Hatfield come quickly to mind, including severe winter weather, flooding, thunderstorms, hurricanes and forest fires. Dam failures and drought were other medium risk hazards, with extreme temperatures and earthquakes much less likely. Town officials took an inventory that identified Town Hall, roads, water and sewer lines, communications and emergency services buildings as critical infrastructure. Assisted living and elderly housing, schools and churches were also in need of protection.
“Now we’ve identified five new strategies,” Kaplan said, of which “culverts are high priority, to be completed by 2025. The highway superintendent did go through and ask me to prioritize them, so the town knows which culverts need to be replaced first.”
Culvert replacement is a high cost piece of the proposed HMP. The other five strategies identified are lower in cost and include digitizing town records, studying how to relocate critical buildings off the flood plain, tree trimming and maintenance, making sure the Hatfield Dike is maintained by whoever is responsible for it and establish a second response center for emergencies.
The HMP is still in a fluid stage, according to Kaplan, who explained that public input can be incorporated into the plan until Nov. 15. The HMP then goes to FEMA and its state-level counterpart, MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency). After the plan is vetted on the federal and state levels it comes back to the town.
“We’ll get final approval, then it’ll be brought before the Selectboard,” Kaplan said. “It’s a really important exercise for the town to do on a periodic basis.”