Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.

Bronte Murrell, Clarksville’s Heat Relief Coordinator, stands with the newly approved plan to reduce heat in the town.

Bronte Murrell, Clarksville’s Heat Relief Coordinator, stands with the newly approved plan to reduce heat in the town.

CLARKSVILLE — The Town of Clarksville’s heat-management plan got its full green light at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, just in time for more record-breaking heat in the region.

Heat Relief Coordinator Bronte Murrell, along with the town, has already been hard at work implementing strategies to help keep Clarksville residents safe and reduce the impact of high temperatures.

Town Council passed the 26-point Beat the Heat plan in a unanimous vote and Murrell said it consists of two major components.

“The first side is thinking about how we can adapt to heat as people and how we can improve public education and awareness around heat to make sure people are healthier or safer on hot days,” she said.

The wheels are already in motion for this aspect and include working with Clark County Emergency Management to allow people to sign up for heat alerts.

Cooling centers are open now at the Clarksville library and Salvation Army so people can get relief on hot days.

“This summer we will be sending out cool kits, with water bottles, cooling towels and electrolyte tablets...to people experiencing homelessness,” she said.

Clarksville will host trainings this summer with public health, social service professionals and community members in which people can learn about heat and how to stay safe.

The town is also working on a program in which people can check in on others, such as seniors living alone, on hot days.

“We are really making sure we can contribute to lower air temperatures in Clarksville in the coming years,” she said, referencing the second main component of the plan.

To do this the town will look into providing more tree cover, encouraging developers to use heat-reducing materials and also helping residents keep their homes cool.

“People have seen over the last week how we stay cool and safe at home is an important piece of this,” she said, adding the town is looking into a way to possibly provide window air-conditioning units to residents or help people with utility bills.

Murrell said the heat wave the area has been experiencing doesn’t usually happen this early in the summer, so residents aren’t as acclimated to the high temperatures at this point in the season.

The town’s heat-relief program is fueled by a grant that goes through next year.

Known as “Beat the Heat,” the grant is fromIndiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute and supported by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. It started in 2021.

Clarksville Fire Chief Brandon Skaggs said Murrell’s work will allow first responders to address the needs of citizens faster.

“So typically, we don’t take a lot of heat-related emergencies initially, it’s usually the heat-related emergency that ends up with an accident or unknown type of illness we respond to,” he said.

He said this work is proactive and can keep people from being overheated or reduce tragic incidents related to heat.

Last week Skaggs said the department was dealing with the heat in relation to possible prescribed disruptions of electricity in the area.

“If we have a prescribed shutdown of electric services, what do those medical patients who need (oxygen do), how are we going to plug that in?” he said. “That’s something I’m planning with my department.”

According to Beat the Heat, Clarksville experiences around 42 extreme heat days each year and that will likely more than double by 2050.

Murrell is a Louisville native who recently graduated with a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver.

She said heat-relief programs are just now popping up in larger U.S. cities and it’s special for Clarksville to be able to address the effort at a local level.

“To have leadership in the community...to really get behind the issue, is a really powerful thing so we can begin to address it,” she said.

The large mosaic letters were installed in the Spring and were meant to stay up throughout the summer. Now, the installation will be dismantled early to prevent more thefts from occurring. 

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