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The Washington County Commissioners approve a matching fund commitment letter regarding the County's storm warning system upgrade.

Eric Ashlock, Washington County Emergency Management's Deputy Director, says 75-percent of the Federal Emergency Management grant will be covered while the other 25-percent will be the responsibility of each jurisdiction involved. He says all the sub-jurisdictions have agreed to cover their part, but it could be totally funded with the help of people out in the community.

The system upgrade will bring local jurisdictions up-to-speed. Ashlock says more rural communities may soon have a storm siren system that is similar to the one they use in Bartlesville. He says this is a value add for all of Washington County as it will bring communities out of the 1950s into the year 2010, if not 2020.

Dewey will probably have the majority of the improved sirens. Ashlock says Copan, Ochelata, Oglesby, Ramona and Vera will benefit from this project, too. He says they will be able to activate their sirens remotely as opposed to having to go in and manually activate them.

The National Weather Service can activate the sirens if everyone is asleep and a major storm is rolling through in the middle of the night.

An extraordinary circumstances waiver request would be presented by Ashlock shortly after he discussed the matching funds commitment letter with the Commissioners. This came about after Commissioner Mitch Antle received a couple of phone calls about the storm shelter grant program.

Commissioner Antle says everything was interwoven into the storm shelter grant. By everything, Antle means the Multi-Jurisdiction, Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan that the Board of Commissioners approved by resolution last week.

Ashlock says Washington County's Multi-Jurisdiction, Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan was approved. He says they were the first jurisdiction to adopt the plan, followed by Copan and Ramona. Other jurisdictions in Washington County are considering this item this week.

Commissioner Antle says Ashlock has been in constant communication with the 188 applicants for the storm shelter grants. Antle says the conversations have focused on why the process is taking so long. He says the waiver will allow them to hopefully progress forward.

Both items were unanimously approved by the Washington County Commissioners on Monday morning.