Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Flood Buyouts topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pike County approves $73.65 million package of federal and local funds for flood home buyouts
Summary
The Pike County Fiscal Court approved an amendment adding NRCS federal funds and authorized a matching DLG grant application that officials said will increase home-buyout funding to about $73.65 million to relocate repeatedly flooded households.
Pike County Fiscal Court voted on May 19 to approve an amendment to its Emergency Watershed Protection home buyout program that officials said will bring substantial new federal and local funding to remove repeatedly flooded homes from the county's floodplain.
Judge Jones moved to approve an amendment to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) EWP home-buyout project that the transcript lists as adding $36,000,000 in federal funds and a local-match figure given in the meeting as 3,000,786. Judge Jones said the amendment will bring the program’s total buyout funding to $73,654,068. The motion passed on a roll call with Commissioner Scott, Commissioner Atkins, Commissioner Lewis and Judge Jones recorded as voting yes.
Why it matters: County leaders said the buyouts are aimed at permanently relocating residents from high-risk waterways after repeated flood events. Judge Jones thanked county staff (he named Jeanne) for the work on the program and warned that changes in federal disaster policy could reduce future disaster funding returned to local governments: "I'm concerned about a substantial reduction in the amount of money coming back to local governments," he said.
Details and conditions: During the discussion Judge Jones and the clerk linked a separate resolution to apply for a Department for Local Government (DLG) grant intended to provide the 10% local match. In a subsequent motion the court authorized filing a DLG application for up to $3,786,000 and directed the Pike County Judge Executive to execute documents required by DLG; that resolution passed unanimously. The court recorded these votes as formal roll-call approvals.
What the court said: Judge Jones framed the package as one piece of "good news" for families affected by repetitive flooding and stressed buyouts are the only sure way to protect people from sudden, high-water events that put homes at risk.
What’s next: The transcript records the court's formal approval and direction to execute required documents. The DLG application and NRCS-funded buyout work will proceed through the administrative steps required by those agencies.
Provenance: This article summarizes material appearing in the court's presentation and votes on the home buyout amendment (topicintro: SEG 054; topfinish: SEG 157).
