River Gauge Installed at Vinton

We are really excited about the instrument shown in the picture with this blog entry. It is an automatic river gauge installed here at the Cedar River bridge in Vinton. For the past several years, an individual from the Benton County Emergency Management office would manually need to read a metal post and then enter the reading on a computer in order for others, including flood forecasters, to know the level of the river. Now, the readings will automatically be sent to the website. This will provide more accurate information to city officials and flood forecasters to prepare for flood events in the future. Most of the credit for this achievement goes to Benton County Emergency Management Coordinator Scott Hanson who kept Vinton as a National Weather Forecasting point by faithfully read the manual gauge for several years. The funding for this gauge will be provided on the federal level through the United States Geological Service.
Automatic readings from the gauge are not available yet, but will be provided at the website accessed by clicking here.

Lessons from the Flood

Now that we have started a new year and spring has sprung, I have reminisced about the past year and all the events that have happened during it. I keep hearing people say that they want to just forget about the past year and move on. Well, that's fine, but there's a lot one needs to recall from last year.

Certainly, the pain is still there. Memories of the water coming up fast and nothing to stop it. I continually recall my darkest moment when I heard the street superintendent over the radio saying that they were abandoning the electric generation building because the water was coming in too fast. That was certainly a very low moment. I could hear the hush and the despair that momentarily came over the emergency operations center.

But then, the electric general manager and the chairperson of the electric trustees board came rushing in to call for the electric generator trucks to restore power to the city. It seemed to breathe new life into us. I went up from the basement of the courthouse and saw the many people who came from all over the area to help fill sandbags while several others prepared food to feed them. It was almost like our community was getting a rebirth or renewal to start fresh with a brighter outlook on things. Even the sky, which was cloudy that morning cleared up and the sun shone brightly on the scene. It is these moments that I want to remember.

Also. the lessons we learned. To always be vigilant and prepared. I remembered when the water was getting near floodstage and a couple people told me not to worry until it got a few more feet higher. Now. everyone is concerned with the river now rising slightly even though the river is still a few feet below floodstage and we didn't have the snow or rain like last year. How long will we remember to carefully watch the river to prepare for the worst?

I don't think we want to completely shove last year to the distant past. We can't change what took place, but we need to remember what we learned from this event and apply that to the future.

Done....Midway

As part of its overall flood recovery effort, the City of Vinton submitted an application for the FEMA 404 Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which is often referred to as the "buy-out" program. If the application is approved by FEMA, Vinton will receive funding to buy-out and demolish up to 29 properties that were damaged by last year's flood. As a requirement of the program, the City must not allow any enclosed building to be erected on the property. The picture included with this post shows the application completely filling a 4-inch binder. We had to submit the original application along with a paper and electronic copy. Despite all the hard work that was involved with the application, we are only half-way through the process.

New Animal Shelter Operations

Well, 2008 is in the books. I can't say it was the best year we ever had, but it will be the most memorable. I know several people have remarked that the flood brought out the best in the community and helped to strenthen it. If so, I am glad some good will come from that devastating event.

This past month, the City entered into an agreement with a non-profit group called the Friends of the Shelter, Inc. which also goes by its acronym, FOTSI. This group had volunteered at the city-owned pound previously, but wanted to do more for the animals. The agreement allows the city to concentrate on flood recovery and other public services, while FOTSI can concentrate more on caring for the animals. The shelter is currently closed to the general public, but will reopen in March.

FOTSI hopes to build a new shelter in the future. If you wish to donate time, material or money to their cause, you can call (319) 472-4623 or send a note to FOTSI, PO Box 82, Vinton, IA 52349.

All Aboard!

This past weekend, the Iowa Northern Railway donated the Hawkeye Express train to make four trips between the City of Palo and the City of Vinton. The event was originated by a couple of residents in Palo and organized with the Benton County Disaster Recovery Coalition to raise money for flood victims in Palo and Benton County. Despite the cold temperatures, many people participated in the rides. This helps to add to the discussion about restarting passenger rail service in Iowa besides the Amtrak line that runs through the southern half of the state. I worked at the Vinton Lions trailer that was parked next to the Vinton Rail Depot--it was great to see the old, restored depot being heavily used again for its original purpose!

Flood Recovery Update

I realized recently that I have not posted to my blog for several months. Things have been a little crazy trying to catch up with FEMA items from the flood recovery and other regular things such as the beginning of the budget cycle. Th city has largely recovered from the flood. We have a sewer lift station to repair yet and several houses to demolish and send in for a possible FEMA buyout. The electric generation plant should be on-line by February. That's about it for the flood recovery update. May everyone have a great Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Increasing Financial Assistance

The President signed an executive order today increasing the federal share to 90 percent of costs for public assistance received on projects from the flood recovery. Normally, the federal share would be 75-percent, state share would be 10-percent and the local share would be 15-percent. What this means is that the state share will now be 10-percent and local share will be 0.

This is great news for the city, especially for our electric utility which was facing repairs into the millions to put our generation plant into business. Benton County also benefits when it goes to either repair or replace the county law enforcement center and jail. This would have been costly for the county--at least into the millions of dollars.

Flood recovery is a slow pace thing, but together our community is sticking with it!

You can read the announcement of the Presidential announcement by clicking here.