HOME Commissioners Departments... Services Documents Forms Projects Links			EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT Contact Information Phone:  231-882-4484, Ext 325 Location / Address Sheriff’s Office 505 S. Michigan Ave. Beulah, MI 49617 Personnel   Bill Sholten – Emergency Management Coordinator Email Services Offered Maintain Emergency Operations Plan Provide Benzie County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Operate the Emergency Operations Center Coordinate resources and efforts during response and recovery Description The Office of Emergency Management (O.E.M.) is established by the County Board of Commissioners under the authority of Public Act 390 of 1976. The purpose of the OEM is to provide for planning, mitigation, response, and recovery from natural and human-made disasters within the county. Planning – The County has developed and maintains an Emergency Operations Plan consistent with the standards and requirements of the Michigan State Police Emergency Management Division. This plan establishes guidelines and actions to be taken in the event of a wide variety of emergencies and disasters. The plan is intended to be an “all hazards” plan. The planning phase includes conducting training and exercises to test the Emergency Operations Plan. Mitigation – Help identify and coordinate mitigation opportunities in the County. The County has adopted the Benzie County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan as part of this activity (see Documents below). Response – In the event of a disaster or emergency, the Emergency Management Coordinator is responsible for activation of the Emergency Operations Center, contacting personnel to staff the center and then coordinate the first responders activities to provide for the health and safety of the citizens of the County. Recovery – After a disaster or emergency there is a period of time, sometimes weeks, months, or even years, which the community is rebuilding and healing from the event. During this time O. E. M. will coordinate with local, state, federal, and private resources to return the community to a condition as good as or better than before the event. Programs: Local Planning Team - This committee is comprised of officials from the community to oversee and advise the EMC on the direction of the program. Part of the responsibilities of this committee is to target where available funding from the Federal Government is allocated. This committee meets as needed. Local Emergency Planning Committee - This committee meets quarterly on the third Thursday of the month at 7:30pm at the Emergency Operations Center at the Sheriff’s Office. This committee oversees the activities of the Hazardous Materials Emergency Plan program. Local business and industries that have hazardous materials on their premises can, with the assistance of the local emergency management coordinator, create an Emergency Response Plan for their site. Some businesses are required under federal law to have these plans on file. These plans help local first responders know how to protect themselves and others as they respond to emergency calls at these sites. Documents Benzie County Hazard Mitigation Plan, 47 page PDF document, 1.7 mB Related Web Links From these two web sites you can navigate to almost any area of emergency management related information you wish. Federal Emergency Management Administration State of Michigan Emergency Management Note: To view the PDF documents on this page, Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed. If you do not already have it, you can get it free from Adobe. Once installed, simply clicking on the link will bring up the document. Note however that the document will first be transferred to your computer, which can take a while for large documents and/or if you have a slow connection.
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