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In the wake of the recent wildfires that ravaged parts of southern California, the county is seeking a federal grant to keep Troup ready for such an occurrence.

On Tuesday, Troup County Fire Chief Michael Strickland asked the Troup County Board of Commissioners permission to apply for the FY24 Community Wildfire Defense Grant. The grant is issued by the US Department of Agriculture, more specifically, the United States Forest Service.

Strickland said the fire department would use the funding to update Troup County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan which was last updated in 2017.

The grant request is for $245,000, which normally comes with a 10 percent match requirement.

Strickland said Troup County’s match requirement is being waived due to Troup being classified as an economically disadvantaged area, which is based on the median household income determined by the Census Bureau.

“The intent of the money, if awarded, is to hire a consultant who specializes in doing the research and data collection to update these plans. County staff would also work alongside the consultant doing research, data collection, coming up with strategies that [the fire department] can incorporate into the plan to mitigate wildfire impacts on Troup County,” Strickland said.

County Manager Eric Mosley previously oversaw the Community Wildfire Protection Program for the southeast and wrote many of the plans in question, including likely the outdated one for Troup and other surrounding areas.

Mosley said the plans need to be updated because forest conditions change.

“[The plan] sort of provides sort of a snapshot of risks for a local area, and specifically for our area, because we’ve had so much tornado damage over the course of the past few years, there’s a lot of vegetation on the ground and lot of opportunity for a large fire to grow if the conditions are right,” Mosley said.

“A lot of our homes are backed up to hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of forest land, and so that is certainly probably the greatest risk or fires,” Mosley said.

Permission to apply for the federal grant was unanimously approved by the commissioners.

After the evening meeting, Chief Strickland also showed off the county’s new fire “brush truck” which can be used for wildfires and places that normal fire trucks can’t go. The commissioners approved the purchase of the truck for $56,265.24 in September, which was paid for using SPLOST V funds.