Cedar Rapids will start receiving $140 million for flood buyouts

Federal dollars that will pay the bulk of the cost to buy out some 1,300 flood-damaged properties in Cedar Rapids is closer to being available to the city.

On Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reported that the federal government is now sending the assistance to the state of Iowa in the form of federal Community Development Block Grant funds. The state then will dispense the money to disaster communities.

Cedar Rapids is expected to get more than $140 million of the total amount for property buyouts plus other amounts for business assistance, housing construction and infrastructure repairs.

Back in June, the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development came to Cedar Rapids to first announce that the state of Iowa would receive $516.7 million in new federal disaster assistance.

The city has created a buyout process that is under way for property owners so that the city is ready to move on property purchases when money is available.

The city expects to begin the buyouts of 117 properties in the next month or so. Those properties, which are closest to the river and in the proposed greenway along the river, will be bought out with $7.4 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Part of the $516.7-million block grant award is going to public infrastructure projects, and Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday identified those projects. In Eastern Iowa, Cedar Rapids will receive $15.5 million; Iowa City, $11.6 million; Coralville, $600,000; Shellsburg, $502,557; Brooklyn, $1.56 million; Chelsea, $549,000; Garnavillo, $908,150; and Sigourney, $950,000.