Council fails to pass legislation needed by FEMA

FINDLAY — Findlay City Council didn't have the votes needed to waive its own reading rules Tuesday, delaying legislation needed for the release of $24 million in federal flood mitigation funds. Mayor Christina Muryn has called for an emergency meeting of council at 4:30 p.m. Monday to try again. The vote was 7-1 to waive council's three-reading rule, with Councilwoman Holly Frische, R-1, opposed. Frische's no vote was enough to stop legislation to approve Hancock County's recently updated natural hazard mitigation plan, the last known step before FEMA is expected to release the funding needed to begin construction of Findlay-Hancock County's flood mitigation projects. Overriding the rule requires a supermajority of council members to agree. With at-large councilmen Grant Russel and Jeff Wobser absent from Tuesday's regular meeting of council, the vote had to be 8-0 to move the legislation on the natural hazard plan forward to a second and third reading, and a vote. Frische said she didn't have time to read the 200-plus-page report that was released to the council and the media on Friday, after Muryn learned about the FEMA requirement from federal lawmakers. In an email to city leaders on Friday, which carbon copied (CC) local media, Muryn asked that the legislation be rushed through at Tuesday's meeting. Despite repeated affronts by the mayor and other council members, including calls to read the entire document on Tuesday night, Frishce refused to call for a reconsideration of the vote, saying she's not opposed to flood mitigation, but council has a job to do. Both councilmen, Dennis Hellmann, R-2, and Dan DeArment, R-4, also said they did not read the natural hazard plan. Hellmann went on to say that he was very familiar with the document that included only a few updates. Officials have been working for nearly a year to update the natural hazards plan, part of the requirements for federal emergency funding in the event of a disaster. It must be updated every five years. The Hancock Regional Planning Commission is in charge of updating the plan. The goal of the plan is to improve local response to natural hazards. Each jurisdiction in Hancock County will be asked to adopt the final plan via legislation. Failure to adopt the plan will result in the jurisdiction being ineligible for funding from FEMA. On Tuesday, Matt Cordonnier, commission director, said there was some confusion earlier this year as to whether FEMA was going to continue reviewing the natural hazards plan, believed to be part of the directives issued by the new federal initiative known as the "Department of Government Efficiency" or DOGE. FEMA has since returned to reviewing the plans. Floods, tornadoes and severe storms top the list for high potential of occurrence and severity of impact locally. The ability to mitigate flood damage has the most potential, according to the update. New to the plan this year are goals that would improve tornado response, including improved radar coverage capable of early warning tornado detection to include low-level tornadoes, below 7,000 feet. Installing an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System has also been added to the list. IPAWS is a national system managed by FEMA in the United States. Its primary purpose is to provide authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public quickly and efficiently. Money from the FEMA flood mitigation grant will be used to help fund the construction of the $75 million Eagle Creek flood basin and provide $5 million for continued benching of the Blanchard River. The state of Ohio has already awarded $60 million from its 2022-23 operating budget to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the construction of the basin. In the email to city leaders, Muryn said paperwork for a $7.1 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration is also moving. The grant will help pay for the cost of replacing the aging Norfolk Southern Railroad Bridge over the Blanchard River in downtown Findlay. Once signed, Muryn said the Maumee Watershed Conservancy District, Defiance, will be able to sign the construction work agreement with Norfolk Southern. It's the last of the paperwork needed to put the project out for bid, she said. The current bridge, built in the early 1900s, restricts water flow during high river levels. The new design will double the bridge span from 150 to 300 feet and raise its elevation, allowing for better water passage and reducing flood levels by an estimated 0.3 feet at Main Street during a 100-year storm event. The county will pay $5 million towards the construction of the bridge, which will account for most of the balance of the local flood mitigation fund. Findlay will pay $4.6 million. In 2009, Hancock County voters approved a 10-year, 0.25% additional sales tax to pay for flood mitigation. The additional sales tax generated about $32 million over 10 years. Muryn has said bid documents are ready to go on the projects, and meetings have already been held with prospective contractors. On Tuesday, she said the goal is to break ground on the projects by October, and repeated her warning that every delay puts Findlay at risk for another flood event without the mitigation in place. The Blanchard River has crested above flood stage dozens of times over the past 100 years, causing extensive damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure. Flood mitigation efforts along the Blanchard River at Findlay are expected to remove about half of the 5,000 properties from the 100-year floodplain in Hancock County.