Summerdale submits letter of intent for potential safe room

By Jessica Vaughn
Posted 12/22/21

SUMMERDALE - The Town of Summerdale approved the submission of a letter of intent (LOI) detailing the town’s desire to build a safe room. The LOI is the first step in the process towards …

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Summerdale submits letter of intent for potential safe room

Posted

SUMMERDALE - The Town of Summerdale approved the submission of a letter of intent (LOI) detailing the town’s desire to build a safe room. The LOI is the first step in the process towards applying for a FEMA grant in the hopes of being awarded the money for the safe room’s construction. The deadline for the LOI was Thursday, Dec. 16.
“That letter of intent goes back to Baldwin County EMA, and they prioritize projects in Baldwin County based on the need, so projects that are protecting lives like safe rooms typically rise to the top,” said Eddie Culpepper, president of EnCompass360. “Baldwin EMA is then going to tell Alabama EMA that they want to do this project, and what happens is they’ve got a percent of the money, and let’s say you need $2 million, Baldwin County EMA is going to ask Alabama EMA to pull that $2 million over here for Summerdale for their safe room. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to actually do this project, it just means that they’ve carved out that amount of money for you.”
If the money is set aside, Summerdale Council will discuss whether or not to accept the money and begin the project. There is a 75/25 match on the grant, with the town paying 25% towards the project. The LOI asks for the safe room to house a minimum of 75 people. It would be used by members of the police department, fire department and town leadership during emergency situations including hurricanes and tornadoes.
“You’re trying to make sure that those people’s lives are safe; you don’t want a facility that’s going to fall down on the ground,” said Culpepper. “Most of these end up with kitchens in them because you’re in there up to 72-hours plus, so you have a kitchen, bathrooms, showers, storage rooms and some municipalities put a mini-dispatch in there in case their main facility gets damaged they have another place to operate out of. Those are all things that need to be thought about and decided on during the design phase.”
Additionally, most safe rooms are dual use. Mayor David Wilson said he believes the safe room could double as the town’s senior center the majority of the time. To this end, all the furniture used for the senior center would have to be portable so it could be removed during an emergency situation.
“If you had a hurricane coming, you have to take the tables or the desks or chairs down and remove them, because you’re going to protect ‘x’ number of people in there so they don’t want fixed furniture taking up space that would be required for an individual to be in there,” Culpepper said. “That’s FEMA’s rules. So you can use the safe room for whatever, and that’s going to be 90% of the time. You don’t have a hurricane every day, so 90% of the time you’re going to be using it for whatever you want to use it for, and when a tornado or hurricane comes, it’s got to go into storm mode. That’s the requirement.”
If Summerdale is approved for the grant and decides to proceed with the safe room construction, they will then have to prepare a grant application. Grant applications for such projects typically remain in review for a year, Culpepper said. If the application is approved, the project would then move into the design phase.