Plenty of Cedar Rapids ideas for new $40-million pot of FEMA funds

CEDAR RAPIDS - Giddy isn't quite the word, but it almost is.

On Wednesday, the City Council met over lunch to try to prioritize how it intends to spend some $40 million in money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the city gets because it can't reuse certain flood-damaged, city-owned properties.

Council members have plenty of ideas.

For instance: Raise the south roadway approach to the Edgewood Road bridge so the roadway doesn't so easily flood. Invest in the New Bohemia and Czech Village neighborhoods and the new Medical District. Support a year-round city market. Add to the city's trail system. Improve the riverfront and add an outdoor amphitheater there. Build the recreation center called the Multigenerational Community Life Center.

City department heads have their own list that stretches to dozens of projects.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, noted some of the building projects already on the city's plate, such as the Central Fire Station, a new Animal Care and Control facility, a downtown parking ramp and Public Works facility improvements, all of which have funding “gaps.”

Of the estimated $40 million in FEMA funds coming today the city for unusable, flood-damaged, city-owned facilities, an estimated $18.87 million comes from the Sinclair meatpacking plant, now being demolished; $13.78 million from the city's hydroelectric plant at the base of the 5-in-1 dam; $1.6 million from the former Quality Chef buildings plant on Third Street SE in New Bohemia; $1.745 million from the Time Check Recreation Center; $1 million from the First Street Parkade; $900,000 from city forestry shops near Czech Village; and some lesser sums for small facilities.

On Wednesday, the council repeated its commitment to use the money attached to the hydroelectric plant to build a new waste-to-energy incinerator at the city's Water Pollution Control plant. The incinerator will burn sewage sludge to produce electricity to meet some of the plant's needs.