Red Oak Council hears update on levee recertification

 The Red Oak City Council received mixed news on the city’s levy project during its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 16. 

The project was begun after changes were made to federal flood mapping requirements. 

In the past, the flood mapping was limited to the city limits only. A change in mapping procedures starts May 2. 

Red Oak City Administrator Brad Wright said in the past, the flood map ended at Coolbaugh Street. 

The change “now takes the entire square into the flood district,” Wright said. “One of the things that does is limit us in our grant dollars. Communities in a flood zone can’t get federal dollars. So we’re no longer eligible for Community Development Block grants.”

Housing relocation grants are also at stake, he said.

“Any homes falling in a flood zone are no longer eligible, and the part of our community that needs the most help is right in the flood zone,” he said. 

Wright added the city is still fighting to change that policy before the change takes effect May 2. 

Another frustration is the change forces the city to re-certify the levee. In the past, the levee was certified to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ standards. After Hurricane Katrina and other recent natural disasters, the levee now has to be certified to FEMA standards, which are more stringent than those of the Corps. 

Dan Fricke with JEO Consulting Group talked to the city council about the best way forward with certification. 

Fricke said the phased approach allows for better results over the long term. One of the biggest concentrations for the organization was on the levee’s freeboard. Freeboard is the height of the levee relative to the water surface elevation that FEMA maps to as a 100-year flood. 

Fricke said the results of his findings were positive. 

“Generally the levee system looks great. Almost all of it is well above the regulations. The main problems are at the top and bottom of the levee at the tie-ins. We’ll need to do some more model link-up as we move forward with further mapping moving forward. There are potential free board challenges that would need to be done at the top of the levee,” Fricke said. 

At the bottom of the levee, highways and railroad embankments are not typically used in levee mapping, and the downstream part of the levee ties off into the railroad embankment. 

“That’s one of the challenges we’ll sort out,” Fricke said. “… to see what kind of impact that has on the recertification path, and what will happen if we can’t use that embankment as part of the actual levee.” 

Fricke said he will develop a draft report for the city to review, and make sure all the findings they have scoped for are covered and explained for the council. 

Mayor Bill Billings was positive about the initial findings of the study. 

“From looking at the map, it looks like we’re not looking at major reconstruction for the majority of the levee. From what we’re seeing tonight, we can exhale a little bit. We’re still facing a project that may cost substantial dollars, but it’s not the multi-million dollar project we were afraid we were going to have to spend to raise the freeboard of the entire levee,” Billings said. 

Fricke agreed with Billings, that he’d worked on other levee projects that were in far worse shape. 

By the end of March, Fricke said they would have Phase One of the project complete and have reports for the council at a later meeting. 

In other business, the council:

• Renewed Class C liquor licenses for Casa De Oro restaurant and Hy-Vee Food Store. 

• Approved airport hangar leases for Bryce Leighton, Headwind Aviation, Jeff Connor, John Viberg, Bryan Easton, Terry Dalton, and Mike Josephson. 

• Approved a request from the Classy Chassis Car Club for street closings on Aug. 20 to accommodate the car show, usage of city barricades, and usage of the empty lot on the west side of the square for a food vendor location. 

• Approved a performed services agreement with the Montgomery County YMCA for fiscal year 2016-2019

• Set March 7 as the date for a public hearing on 2016 street improvement projects and improvements to the Red Oak Recreation Trail.