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Ephrata council authorizes application for flood-mitigation planning grant
Summary
Councilors authorized staff to apply for an EDC SIP grant to fund a three-phase flood-mitigation planning effort aimed at removing portions of the city from the floodplain; staff said the draft consultant estimate is about $112,500 and the grant requires a 25% match that can be satisfied with documented staff time.
The Ephrata City Council voted to authorize staff to pursue an Economic Development Council (EDC) SIP grant to fund a three‑phase flood‑hazard mitigation plan that staff says could remove parts of the city from the FEMA floodplain and lower development and insurance obstacles. The authorization came during the council's regular meeting.
Staff member S6, who presented the plan, said the project would use grant-funded modeling and mapping to pursue both map amendments and larger infrastructure projects. “If we can get a portion of the city out of the flood plain or all of it out of the flood plain, there's a massive economic benefit,” S6 said, describing a combination of modeling, a LOMA/LOMAR-style map amendment process and subsequent physical projects. Staff identified a draft consultant scope and an estimate of $112,500 from Grant Osborne for the engineering and modeling work in the packet.
Why it matters: staff told the council that removing parcels from the floodplain could ease insurance burdens and spur private investment, while long-term physical interventions (debris basins, channel lining, or a new box culvert bridge) would likely require separate, phased construction grants. S6 said the EDC funding would require the city to show a 25% match, and that documented staff time could satisfy that match.
Councilors asked technical questions about mapping and data. S4 asked whether the city already had lidar data; S6 said the state recently completed lidar for the region and that the city has high-resolution contours available to support the modeling work. S6 also described an approach to seek separate grants for discrete projects once the planning and modeling are complete.
The council moved and seconded a resolution (R26‑030) authorizing the application for the EDC SIP grant and voted in favor. Staff and the council emphasized the authorization is to apply only; funding is not guaranteed and, if awarded, specific projects and construction would be subject to separate approvals.
Next steps: staff will prepare and submit the EDC SIP grant application and will document staff time as part of the required match; if funded, staff anticipates returning to the council with consultant scopes and project-level proposals.
