In order to better prepare for emergency responses, a new partnership between Snoqualmie, North Bend, Carnation and Duvall is in the works. At the Snoqualmie City Council meeting Aug. 8, an agreement to create a regional emergency management organization to distribute emergency management grant funding between the four cities was approved.

The city of Snoqualmie has been applying for a federal emergency management program grant every year since 2010. Since then, the city has received more than $30,000 year in grant funds for emergency management.

Mark Correira, director of emergency management for the city, explained that due to federal funding limitations and changes in state administrative code regarding the way the grant program distributes funds, Snoqualmie would receive approximately $10,000 in 2016 and would receive less than that in 2017. Under the new code, agencies receiving less than $10,000 would have their funds go to the county instead.

“We were going to fall below $10,000, so we reached out to North Bend, Carnation and Duvall, because they weren’t getting those grant dollars at all,” Correira said. “The way they distribute the dollars is on a per capita basis. What we are going to do with that is Snoqualmie will be the lead agency for capturing those grant funds and managing the grant funds and we will distribute those dollars to them for emergency management services.”

The new agency will not be providing emergency services, each city will still use its own programs. By pooling together the populations of each city and creating a combined agency, Snoqualmie will still be able to receive the grant funding as well as spread those funds to the other three cities.

“We started the process last fall, we had two or three meetings to see if there was an interest, funding-wise everyone recognized the opportunity,” Correira said. “Carnation, they approved it last week. We’ve already met with Duvall and they are ready to go. North Bend is going to look at it in the next few weeks.”