BENTONVILLE -- Federal officials will be in Benton County today, assessing the damage done during the recent flooding.
County Judge Bob Clinard told the Finance Committee the inspection by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials is part of the process required if the county is to be reimbursed for the cost of repairing the storm damage.
Budget Cleanup
Benton County’s Finance Committee on Thursday approved an ordinance to finalize some parts of the 2015 budget. Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said some line items ended 2015 with a shortfall and money needed to be transferred into those areas. Guenther said the transfers had a zero net effect on the county’s general fund.
Source: Staff Report
"FEMA will be visiting 10 sites in Benton County on Friday," Clinard told the justices of the peace. If they accept our numbers on those 10 sites they'll accept the numbers we have on the other 26 sits."
Clinard said the county has done temporary repair work on all of the locations damaged during the flooding. He said the permanent repair work will take some time and the county is waiting for a determination on the level of assistance available before deciding whether to do the work in-house of hire subcontractors to do the repair work
Clinard said Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared 13 Arkansas counties as disaster areas, including Benton County. To qualify for a state-level disaster declaration, he said, damage has to exceed a threshold of about $820,000 or $830,000. To qualify for federal disaster assistance, he said, damage in the state has to exceed a threshold of about $4.3 million.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, asked Clinard for the most current damage estimates for the county.
"I have heard from a high of about $2.3 million to a low of about $1.5 million," Clinard said. "Benton County is going to far exceed the $800,000 threshold."
Kurt Moore of District 13 asked Clinard how the recent flooding compared to other flooding events in the county, those in 2013 and 2011. Clinard said the recent flooding was smaller in extent and duration.
"There's no comparison to 2011 when the Illinois River Bridge was under water," Clinard said. "This one, it came up and went back down quicker. We didn't lose any bridges. Most of it was water over the roads, washing out the roadways. We had some culverts wash out."
Clinard said if Arkansas, and Benton County, is designated a disaster area by the federal government as well as the state government the county will be eligible to be reimbursed for up to 87.5 percent of its repair costs. A federal disaster declaration makes the county eligible for up to 75 percent and a state disaster declaration makes the county eligible for another 12.5 percent. He said that reimbursement will help determine whether the county hires contractors to do the work.
"If we get the 87.5 percent back, it makes more sense to hire subcontractors to do that work so our own people can do the work they're scheduled to do," he said.
Clinard said it appears the flooding caused no new damage to War Eagle Bridge. The county is studying the 107-year-old bridge to determine how best to keep it open to local traffic. He said Great River Engineering, the Springfield, Mo., company hired by the county to evaluate the bridge and recommend a plan to repair the bridge, will do another inspection to make sure there's no new damage.
"The water was lapping up to within a few inches of the surface of the bridge but it didn't go over the bridge," Clinard said. "To our knowledge, there was no flood damage to the bridge."
NW News on 01/08/2016