FARMINGTON – County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to endorse a proclamation implementing a national incident management system.

The system requires anyone with a direct role in emergency preparedness, incident management or response to complete training.

If Franklin County wants to continue to apply for Homeland Security emergency preparedness grants, it will have to comply with the needed training, county Emergency Management Director Tim Hardy said Tuesday.

Since 2003, the county and municipalities have received about $600,000 in grant funds that have also benefited schools and the hospital. The money has been used in various ways including preparing Mt. Blue High School in Farmington to be a community shelter in case of an emergency.

According to the proclamation, in the Homeland Security directive, the president instructed the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to develop and administer a national incident management system. The effort is to provide a consistent nationwide approach for federal, state, local and tribal government to work together more effectively and efficiently to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size or complexity.

Other emergency response agencies in the county will also need to comply by completing required training for the incident command management training, Hardy said.

Municipalities that want to continue to apply to receive funds will also have to comply with training, he said.

Jurisdictions will be required to meet the 2006 fiscal year national incident management system implementation requirements as a condition of receiving federal preparedness funding assistance in fiscal year 2007, Hardy said.

The first stage of training can be taken online or his department can provide training, Hardy said.

As years go on, the training progresses in stages, he said.

The basic incident command training teaches people the system and how it works, Hardy said.

According to information Hardy presented to commissioners, those who should take the training include political and government leaders, agency and organization administrators, department heads, command staff, emergency response providers, disaster workers, emergency medical personnel, firefighters, police officers and public works and utility personnel.

Hardy said he’s hoping the endorsement at the county level will send a message to municipalities about the need to implement the system and the training.