County staff outline gauge installations, FEMA extension and pilot funding for low road crossings

County staff and outside consultants gave a multi-part update on hazard-mitigation grants, flood monitoring and infrastructure priorities, saying the county will install stream gauges, use a state base level elevation model to assess risk and may participate in a pilot to split replacement costs for vulnerable low road crossings.

Mr. Bell (county staff) told the court that preliminary engineering and historical assessments on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) sites are under way and that significant construction is not expected this fiscal year, with the tentative timeline showing construction beginning in the first part of FY27. He also reported that FEMA DR-4781 closeout required an extension because of turnover among FEMA project managers and that staff expect to wrap that out in roughly three to six months.

Project representative Manning described a watershed-wide gauge program. He said the project will install 14 gauges across the watershed: nine smaller flood-alert gauges intended to feed county alert platforms and five larger USGS-style gauges that require assembly and longer lead time. Manning listed proposed local gauge sites including Largie Creek, Dodd Ranch (Austin Bend), Clear Creek on FM 274, Table Rock, Cal House Creek and County Road 322 on Leon; he said the smaller gauges should be in place before the end of the month and the larger gauges are roughly a month out from installation.

Consultants reported completion of a county-wide mapping layer that documents every public-road crossing (county, state or other) and a separate "vertical" layer of building elevations and types. They said the state’s base level elevation (BLE) model is being used for a full-coverage flood-risk assessment instead of relying solely on FEMA FIRMs, which leave gaps in coverage for some parts of the county.

As a next step, staff said a pilot program coordinated with ACF would identify lower crossings most at risk and match 50% of replacement costs; in a normal year Road & Bridge would replace two crossings, and under the proposed match the combined effort could accelerate up to four lower-crossing replacements in the coming cycle. The court asked staff to arrange a workshop to brief commissioners and coordinate with Road & Bridge and the county attorney on the program design and agreements.

No formal motions or budget authorizations were made on the grants or pilot program at the meeting; staff were directed to schedule follow-up meetings and provide contract-level information in advance of any county cost share.