Board appoints emergency-management director as designated applicant for FEMA disaster and approves advertising to hire temporary cleanup crews

Emergency Management Director Ratliff told the board that Claiborne County is included in FEMA Disaster DR‑4899‑99 and requested the board designate an applicant to manage public-assistance reimbursement and cleanup activities. The board appointed Ratliff as the designated applicant and authorized the board president to sign the required forms.

Ratliff and other staff stressed that doing debris removal as a county (force‑account work) can be reimbursable but only if documentation meets FEMA standards: photographic evidence “from cradle to grave,” certified truck capacities, precise pickup coordinates, and accurate timekeeping that separates FEMA work from regular county duties. “You gotta be able to take pictures … show identify what you move … we gotta put it on the truck … and it made it to the landfill,” Ratliff said.

Road Manager Porter said district-by-district cleanup would begin and asked the board to authorize advertising to hire 10 temporary workers to help with debris collection and monitoring; the board voted to advertise the positions. Supervisors reiterated past failures in other counties that failed reimbursement due to weak documentation and urged strict adherence to FEMA process.

Ratliff also asked the board to approve a county radiological plan and several internal personnel items; the radiological plan (revision 15) had state approval and the board authorized the board president to sign it. The board accepted a staff resignation and approved other routine spread-across-the-minutes items from the sheriff’s office.