City still hopes for fire station at new site, FEMA not convinced of flooding possibility

CEDAR RAPIDS - City Hall continues to work to obtain federal disaster funds to relocate the flood-damaged Central Fire Station, 222 Third St. NW.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, said last week he is a little frustrated, but he said he is continuing to try to make the case with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the Third Street NW site is prone to more flooding that will either damage or isolate the fire station.

FEMA has concluded that the Central Fire Station sustained more than 50 percent damage in the June 2008 flood, which means the agency will pay to rebuild it as it was before the flood. FEMA also can pay for property to relocate a damaged building, as it has agreed to do with the library.

However, Eyerly said FEMA has declined for now to agree to a move because the Central Fire Station was in the 500-year flood plain at the time of the flood, has not had recurring flooding problems and was not impacted in the 1993 flooding in Cedar Rapids.

Eyerly said he is arguing that the building took on between six and eight feet of water in 2008 and that it easily could be isolated if not flooded by another flood that is greater than 1993's but less than 2008's.

A final determination by FEMA on the Central Fire Station matters tangentially to the city's discussion about a new library. Council member Tom Podzimek has suggested that one possible relocation site for the fire station could be the 700 block of First and Second avenues SE - also a possible site for a library.

Eyerly said FEMA funds are in place for a new fire station, and he is looking at Feb. 10 to ask the City Council to hire a construction manager for the project. The unresolved issue with FEMA over relocation could become a “roadblock” for the start of construction, he said.

The city on its own, without FEMA's help in buying a new piece of property, could decide to put the station in a different spot, Eyerly said.