Private sector money will be sought to help secure at least $1,150 in grant money by Friday aimed at improving Warren County’s preparedness and response for emergencies involving hazardous materials.

Only $250 of $5,750 awarded the county a year ago has been spent because of flat budgeting in her department the past two years, Emergency Management Director Gwen Coleman said. That money was spent on developing an online resource to manage threats from chemical leaks, gas line blowouts and the like.

Grants for hazardous material incident management through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency come with an 80/20 federal-local funding arrangement. The money would pay for completing the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee website and technical staff to analyze the county’s vulnerabilities and hazards in its stock of industrial facilities, among other hazmat-related planning activities the grant can finance.

Though county supervisors do not have a direct hand in determining membership of the LEPC, which applies for the grants and identifies and analyzes various hazards to public safety, Coleman on Monday sought the board’s feelings on soliciting its industrial members for the local match.

“I don’t have any matching money,” Coleman said. “There’s no alternative.”

LEPC members meet quarterly and have had active participation in the recent past from such industries as Ergon Refining, Hunt Southland Refining and Applied Research Associates to discuss hazards with a few key city, county and emergency dispatch officials. Past participation includes other segments of the local business community, including the casinos. Applications for this year’s Hazardous Material Emergency Program received after Friday will be considered only if funds are available, according to MEMA.

General fund money for emergency management totaled $147,466 in the county’s 2010-11 budget, or up a minuscule $363 from the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. An array of grants for Vicksburg and Warren County are pending state approval, including $150,000 to complete a comprehensive emergency response plan and a separate $34,822 federal grant for personnel and equipment administered through MEMA.

MEMA has suggested strongly that city and county officials speed up submission of emergency response items that a comprehensive plan should contain. Revisions to the overall plan were last made in 2007, when Vicksburg formed its own emergency management department. Delays over issues such as money spent on training exercises by the city’s fire personnel and by internal staff turnover have prompted concern and more direct involvement by MEMA in recent weeks.

Two remaining pots of money have either not been applied for or have not been spent. One totaling $100,000 from MEMA would expand the CodeRED telephone notification system countywide. Supervisors have delayed giving a final OK to apply for the money, despite talks in recent months to lower the county’s annual cost to about $13,500, over concerns not enough people will offer their phone numbers and, thus, render participation by the county counterproductive.

Another, a $22,313.53 cut of a $39,000 facilities grant, is unspent, but has been eyed to upgrade the county’s emergency operations center inside the EMA offices, located in the basement floor of the courthouse.