Flood protection before building in flood zone

The city fathers said it would take years to recover from the flood of 2008. Wouldn't it be cost effective to fix the flooding problem before we spend millions of dollars to build in the flood zone?

Flood protection is what we need. The buildings (library and convention center) the City Council, mayor and city manager are things they want. These buildings will be a mere three to four blocks from the river. Let's take care of what we need to protect our citizens first. We already have a new multimillion dollar federal courthouse 20 feet from the river.

The way this country has seen devastating floods the past year in many areas, it would not be unthinkable if we had another flood sooner rather than later. We might have voted for the sales tax proposal if we were given a 10-year, flood protection-only limit.

If city officials think we need these expensive buildings before flood protection, they should guarantee to personally foot the bill if these buildings are flood damaged and more citizens and businesses are forced out of their buildings.

Rae Schaefer

Cedar Rapids