04/05/2023
Update on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Shelter:
Just a quick update to the Portageville School District Safe Room Grant. Portageville School District was selected to submit a BRIC safe room grant application for FY2021. The application period began September 30, 2021 and the deadline to submit the application, completed with no findings, was December 1, 2021. Portageville School District has submitted ALL required documents and materials as requested. The project architect (Dille Pollard Architecture) and the grant manager (Toth & Associates) were selected by the Portageville Board of Education in the fall of 2021 by the proper state, federal, and local board of education selection process.
In Spring/Summer of 2022 the Portageville School District Administrative team began the process of sending in more documentation, shelter-in-place for federal planning of the safe room grant application and physical proximity of the safe room placement to existing structures. Once this was approved in spring of 2022, our team began the site preparation. This consisted of demolish of the old bus garage concrete pad and oil bay several feet in the ground that was backfilled with truckloads of cement. Mr. Mike Kellams, Representative Donnie Brown, and the New Madrid County Highway Department provided invaluable resources and assets to this project. This area was then backfilled with fresh dirt.
Next, The Portageville School District coordinated with Liberty Utilities, to remove and reroute a vital gas line that supplies the Portageville Elementary School. Electrical and fiber optics lines also had to be removed, rerouted, and restored to provide connectivity and electricity to the elementary school while also allowing for the proper ground space for the nearly 9000 square foot safe room structure. All site work was completed in spring/summer 2022. The school district is actually ahead of the game for the safe room on the Portageville School District Campus.
We are just awaiting the final approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of the Kansas City, Missouri office. There are no issues with contractors, construction companies, or any other erroneous assumptions that have been discussed on social media. All is well with the process. It is just a matter of the documentation/final approval within the FEMA organization has been delayed due to reorganization/restructuring which has delayed our school district as well as others that are within this cohort.
Please feel free to contact me at 573 379-3855 with any questions or concerns regarding this matter.
Respectfully,
Michael Allred
Superintendent, Portageville School District