Besides assisting local entities in responding to winter weather and moving into a new office at the Washington County Communications Center, the emergency management agency is also looking toward weather patterns later this year and budgeting for what fiscal year 2022 may bring.

Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen has been busy the last year responding to the pandemic, which now includes planning logistics for public mass vaccination clinics. Reisen says she’s also working on the next fiscal year budget, which she says is different this year, as how the pandemic affected the current and previous fiscal years was an anomaly, “And this isn’t exactly the year that anybody expected or can base the coming year on. So it’s been an interesting challenge in trying to figure out how to budget for that to make sure that I can provide, a lot of what I have done is resource management and logistics. So getting PPE (personal protective equipment), getting it to people, and it’s not just been healthcare. Our schools, our daycares, constant communication with them to make sure they have what they need to keep our kids and their staff safe.”

Reisen mentions she is also attending upcoming webinars about flood preparation and how snow conditions “up river” in northern states may affect Iowa’s flood impact. You can hear more from Reisen during today’s edition of the KCII Public Safety Special Edition News Magazine on air and at kciiradio.com.