Warren County has approved its state-required Hazard Mitigation Plan – but the next one is going to come at a price.

Warren County Commissioners unanimously approved its five-year Hazard Mitigation Plan during a recent meeting. The plan is required for each county in Pennsylvania as well as each municipality in the state. Warren County municipalities will sign on to the county’s plan, a process that can officially begin now that the commissioners have formally approved the plan at the county level.

Pennsylvania requires all local governments to develop and adopt a Hazard Mitigation Plan, with updates required every five years. The plan identifies potential hazards, assesses risks, and outlines strategies to reduce long-term damage to life and property from hazards and must be approved by both the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and FEMA. The plan must include a comprehensive risk assessment to identify and analyze potential hazards and the vulnerabilities of people and property as well as strategies to reduce or eliminate long-term risks from hazards identified in the plan.

Having an approved and active Hazard Mitigation Plan is a prerequisite for receiving pre- and post-disaster grants from state and federal sources, such as the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

“It’s almost 6 inches thick,” said Ken McCorrison, Warren County public safety director. “It’s quite a bit of paperwork.”

This year’s plan cost $80,000 to complete and was paid for through a federal Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities (BRIC) grant. The county won’t have that grant available for the next Hazard Mitigation Plan update, and McCorrison told commissioners the next update will need to be included in future budgets.

“Those grant dollars have gone away after this year so there will be a cost moving forward that’s unfunded for the next five-year period,” McCorrison said. “We have to figure out how we’re going to cover that. Part of this Hazard Mitigation Plan moving forward, just so everybody is aware, is going to be yearly meetings with all the stakeholders to make sure the plan continues to be up to date for each of the five years of the current period of this plan. The cost of that is going to be about $8,000 a year to keep that plan updated.”

Commissioners also unanimously approved the Transit Authority of Warren County’s 2026-27 funding from the county. Commissioner Tricia Durbin TAWC receives $68,700 from county and local governments, with $55,900 of that coming from Warren County. Commissioner Ken Klakamp said TAWC has been helpful with county projects and grants in the past.

“I think that the $55,000, compared to what we’ve received, is a pretty good deal,” Klakamp said. “I didn’t know much about the Transit Authority before I became a commissioner, but sometimes it’s kind of amazing the job that they do – shared rides, medical, directed routes. I question how some of our citizens would get around if that wasn’t available to them. They’re doing a very good job. They’re very supportive of the county.”

In other business:

– Durbin noted that the county Elections Office has seen 48 new voters registered in the county, bringing the total number of registered voters to 25,222. The planning and zoning report showed 30 new zoning permits issued in the last month.

– Lori McDonald of Ridgeway was appointed to the Warren General Hospital Authority board.

– A three-year contract with Bright Space Cleaning was unanimously approved. The contract includes the Warren County Courthouse and 911 center, with the company to clean the buildings three days a week. The contract is for $55,230 a year.

– A contract with Diamond Pharmacy to provide medication to inmates at the Warren County Jail was approved with amendments that were recommended by Nathanial Schmidt, county solicitor.

– Barry VanOrd, Frank Brown and Dan Glotz were appointed to the Warren County Conservation Board with terms to begin Jan. 1, 2026.