Flood Recovery
Cedar Rapids will start receiving $140 million for flood buyouts
Posted on Nov 05, 2009 by Rick Smith.
Federal dollars that will pay the bulk of the cost to buy out some 1,300 flood-damaged properties in Cedar Rapids is closer to being available to the city.
On Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reported that the federal government is now sending the assistance to the state of Iowa in the form of federal Community Development Block Grant funds. The state then will dispense the money to disaster communities.
Cedar Rapids is expected to get more than $140 million of the total amount for property buyouts plus other amounts for business assistance, housing construction and infrastructure repairs.
Back in June, the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development came to Cedar Rapids to first announce that the state of Iowa would receive $516.7 million in new federal disaster assistance.
The city has created a buyout process that is under way for property owners so that the city is ready to move on property purchases when money is available.
The city expects to begin the buyouts of 117 properties in the next month or so. Those properties, which are closest to the river and in the proposed greenway along the river, will be bought out with $7.4 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Part of the $516.7-million block grant award is going to public infrastructure projects, and Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday identified those projects. In Eastern Iowa, Cedar Rapids will receive $15.5 million; Iowa City, $11.6 million; Coralville, $600,000; Shellsburg, $502,557; Brooklyn, $1.56 million; Chelsea, $549,000; Garnavillo, $908,150; and Sigourney, $950,000.
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thumbsupracing
06. Nov, 2009
How long will THAT money be held back under the pretense of "duplication of benefits…?"
crindy
06. Nov, 2009
The admin is holding up my comment
cc1091
06. Nov, 2009
OK. So Chucky-Boy held up the funding until a Republican was elected Mayor?
Also, when I add up $140 Mil with the numbers in the last paragraph I still only see an accounting of 1/3 of the funds. Can the paper provide a link to an itemized list that tells us where all $516.7 million is going? I find it hard to believe that the bulk of the money wouldn't go to the Cedar Rapids area and perhaps Postville.
crindy
06. Nov, 2009
Here is a link to the Action Plan that lists how the $516 million is to be used.
http://www.iowalifechanging.com/community/disaste...
You need to choose the .pdf file for Amendment #4
Maybe I should be a reporter…..
Tyree_C
06. Nov, 2009
Ooo, flood buyout money! And only 20 months after the flood. Wow. That beats the initial Katrina assistance by what, 13 days? Aren't you glad you voted for Change in 2008? Yes, you can! Um…and no, I didn't. I may not know much, but I knew better than to vote that way…
gardbr
07. Nov, 2009
Where Is My Check??
a-noyd
07. Nov, 2009
Ummm, Tyree… Katrina and the flood were both on Bush's watch. So his people are the ones who got the slow ball moving. The Obama administration is less than a year old, and now the flood buyouts are near. Nice try, though.