NC Emergency Management announces recipients for 2024 Capacity Building Competitive Grant

RALEIGH — Avery County is among 19 counties across the state who have been awarded 2024 Capacity Building Competitive Grant Program (CBCG), according to a release from NC Emergency Management.

The CBCG Program was authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly for FY24 in the amount of $1,925,578 with the purpose to provide funding for building local emergency management capabilities, closing preparedness, response, or recovery gaps, and to assist local emergency management agencies across the state with building capacity to effectively respond to all hazards.

To be eligible for this grant program, Counties must have a population of 230,000 or fewer, based on the 2021 Certified County Population Estimates from the State Demographer, housed in the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management.

The target priorities of the 2024 CBCG Program are:

Increasing local mass care and human services capacity.Preparedness initiatives.Improving incident management/coordination capacity.Improving Emergency Operations Center capabilities, to include technology initiatives for continuity of operations purposes.Resiliency initiatives.Other targeted projects as identified by a local or regional Threat Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA).

Avery County received an award of $145,000 that is being used for a project replacing the generator at the Avery County Senior Center.

Other counties in the region receiving grant funding include Ashe County ($56,011 for an unmanned aircraft project and logistics storage project), Burke County ($107,000 for a shelter generator transfer switch project) and McDowell County ($75,000 for swift water rescue boat and equipment purchases.

“I would like to thank all of the applicants for taking the time to submit projects that will increase local capacity and ultimately build more resilient communities” said NCEM Director Will Ray. “North Carolina is fortunate to have such dedicated local emergency managers that always seek opportunities to build capacity to effectively respond and recover to any threat or hazard.”