Mobile County’s emergency management agency is racing against a federal deadline after learning it owes the Federal Emergency Management Agency more than $711,000, stemming from a long-delayed construction project that never broke ground.
The Mobile County Emergency Management Agency (MCEMA) faces a June 8 repayment deadline for the debt, which traces back to a 2010 grant intended to help build a new emergency operations center. Under the terms of that grant, construction was supposed to begin within a defined performance period. Five years later, the project still had not broken ground, despite two previous extensions.
Mobile County Commission President Connie Hudson told MCEMA members this week that the agency is hoping U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne and Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions will intervene on the county’s behalf to secure one more extension, this time for 36 months. MCEMA first learned the grant needed to be repaid through a letter from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency dated May 5, prompting Hudson to formally request help from the state’s congressional delegation on May 15.
According to MCEMA director of operations John Kilcullen, the delays stemmed from a chain of federally required reviews. An environmental study had to be completed and approved before construction could begin. The process was further slowed when the Seminole Tribe of Florida requested a cultural survey of the 8.3-acre site to check for historical artifacts. “You cannot break ground until after those are complete,” Kilcullen said.
By 2012, construction documents were ready, but securing full funding hit additional snags, prompting the first extension request. FEMA approved the environmental and historic preservation assessment that March, and by August the city of Mobile issued a warranty deed transferring the 8.3 acres, located near the current 911 call center in west Mobile, for the project.
The project later secured a separate grant of more than $1.3 million from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to fund a safe room for first responders as part of the new emergency operations center. That grant’s performance period runs until 2016 and is not immediately at risk.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Spencer Collier warned in his letter to MCEMA that all federal homeland security grants for Mobile County and its municipalities will be frozen until the FEMA debt is resolved. If the money is not repaid or the deadline extended by June 8, the outstanding balance will begin accruing six percent interest under federal Treasury guidelines, adding further financial pressure on the county agency.