DIXFIELD – At Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, officials were briefed about the work done by the town’s new Hazard Mitigation Committee.

Committee Chairman Fred Blonder, speaking to the board during a public hearing, detailed a draft of Dixfield’s plan. Its purpose is to reduce the risk of disasters to residents and minimize damages to structures, infrastructure and other resources.

The Hazard Mitigation Plan includes appropriate communications with first responders, such as police, fire, local, state and federal officials.

Essentially, the plan targets Dixfield’s most disaster-prone areas in order to reduce repetitive loss of property and any risk to all community members.

Blonder said benefits realized through the plan include reduced public and private damage costs, reduced social and economic disruption, better access to funding sources for mitigation projects, and improved ability to implement post-disaster recovery projects.

Town Manager Nanci Allard said selectmen need to approve the plan by Nov. 1 so the town can qualify for future Federal Emergency Management Agency money.

“We tried to delve into the things we needed to do to get a safety program together,” said committee member Norman J. Towle.

The plan is intended to meet requirements of FEMA, the Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program.

The Hazard Mitigation Plan provides the town with a set of proposed mitigation tasks to accomplish in the event of floods, winter and summer storms and associated wind-related hazards.

It also provides proposed mitigation for fire-related and geologic hazards, hazardous materials, disease and epidemic procedures, automobile graveyards and junkyards, and terrorism.

Rather than discuss it during their regular business meeting, selectmen tabled the matter to their next meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 11, in the town office.

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