EAGLE RIVER — Keweenaw County has received the funds of a $50,000 Rural Readiness Grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Rural Prosperity for its planned County Emergency Operations Center.

The Keweenaw Community Foundation and The Nature Conservancy in Michigan are co-applicants on the grant, which the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development designed to support rural communities in planning and capacity building. The $50,000 grant stipulates a $10,000 match being divided by TNC, the KCF and the county Sheriff’s Office.

Julia Petersen, project manager for the The Nature Conservancy in Michigan’s Keweenaw Heartlands, said TNC and the Keweenaw Community Foundation are providing support for the project.

Petersen said the grant is separate from the Keweenaw Heartlands Project, but that the Emergency Operations Center project and the Heartlands project are inter-related.

“It’s important that we’re participating in finding solutions to the challenges in the county that the Heartlands Project integrates with,” Petersen said, adding that the Rural Readiness Grant award does not fund any part of the Heartland Project.

Tourism in the county has been steadily increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic first began, which has strained emergency services in the county. Adding to that, said Petersen, with the goal of the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s stated intent to purchase 10,000 acres of Keweenaw Point, currently owned by TNC , for use as public recreational land, will add further to the Keweenaw’s attractiveness.

“We want to make sure that the emergency response is coordinated, both for visitors and for local residents, as well,” Petersen said. “This is a step in that direction.”

At this point, the County Emergency Operations Center is a planning project, Petersen said, and does not guarantee that anything will be constructed. The grant, however provides funding for the community and the Sheriff’s Office to have time to discuss what they envision for the completed project.

County Sheriff Curt Pennala said what is currently planned is predicted to take around 18 months and should begin around the fourth week of February.

“We’re going to do some community engagement,” he said, “then develop a Stakeholder Committee, which will meet throughout the 18-month period.”

The goal, throughout that period, is to create a planning board, conduct public engagement meetings and survey, and come up with a vision for the project, then to develop a concept for the project.

TNC and KCF will be closely involved in the engagement process, as will Michigan State University’s Baraga County Extension, which has been studying the impact of tourism pressure in Keweenaw County. Other agencies slated to make up the Board are Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region, Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, Mercy Ambulance Service, Superior Search and Rescue, Keweenaw County Road Commission and several others.

“They will be part of the stakeholder group that will help in establishing the vision of the project,” Pennala said.