by KENNETH FRY, Press Argus-Courier Editor Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:27 AM CST
Members of the Van Buren City Council agreed Monday night to take a proactive approach in seeking Corps of Engineers certification of the Arkansas River levee.
The council voted 5-0 in a special meeting called by Mayor Bob Freeman to authorize a $160,000 expenditure for a detailed inspection of Van Buren's 1.5-mile portion of the 22-mile levee which runs through Crawford County.
"I don't see we have a choice," Alderman Bill Swaim said of the unfunded federal mandate. "The sooner we do it the better off we will be in showing a good-faith effort."
Freeman said Van Buren and Crawford County were notified in 2006 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would require levee certification — proof of structural soundness and maintenance sufficient to protect the area from a 100-year flood.
"If they are not certified, they will not exist," Freeman told the council.
If the levees built in the 1940s are not certified, Freeman said they would not be included in FEMA's flood risk maps as a flood control measure. The result would place the industrial park and much of historic downtown in the flood plain.
The change would prevent construction in some locations and require property owners to obtain flood insurance before federally backed property transactions could occur. Property owners without flood insurance may not receive federal recovery assistance in the event they incur flood damage.
Freeman said the city would continue to work with County Judge John Hall in getting the remaining 20.5 miles of the levee certified. That cost will be an estimated $258,000.
"We have levees that have not failed in 60 years," Freeman said, "then we are given two years to get them certified."
Freeman pointed out that over the years the Van Buren and Crawford County levee boards have kept the levees well maintained.
Alderman Kevin Johnson asked what will keep FEMA from raising levee standards following the certification process.
That is one of the reasons Freeman said he will send City Engineer Brad Baldwin and Building Inspector David Martin to a St. Louis conference in February.
"The corps wants to get this done as quickly and cost effectively as possible," Freeman said.
