City Hall closes on first 3 of an expected 1,300 property buyouts

Twenty months after the June 2008 flood, City Hall on Friday bought out the first three flood-damaged properties in the city in what will be a buyout spree that is expected to reach 1,300 homes and other properties.

“I can hardly believe it,” one of the first three, 75-year-old Jean Barger, said Friday. “They strung us out so long.”

Rita Rasmussen, the city's senior real estate officer, said Friday another 39 properties are lined up for buyout closings, which she said will take place beginning the week of March 1.

The hope is that most of the buyouts will be complete this year, she said.

Barger's flooded-wrecked home, at 1221 Third St. NW, had been one she rented out and was trying to sell at the time of the flood. She had received no earlier disaster payments because she was not living in the house at the time of the flood. Friday's buyout check was her  first disaster money.

“I hope they won't have a big hassle,” Barger, of 209 Auburn Dr. SW, said of all the other owners who have yet to get their buyout.

Stacy and John Michalec also on Friday closed with the city on a flood-damaged property, which for them was a vacant lot where their house used to stand at 1426 Third St. NW. They had moved to a bigger home, at 75 29th St. NW,  shortly before the flood and also had flood insurance on the value of flood-hit house, though not on the value of the land.

Even so, Stacy Michalec, 46, said she has lost her job in the national economic downturn and her husband, 45, has seen his hours cut, too.

“I'm glad to have it,” she said of the buyout check. “Having to wait: It's been a cloud hanging over you since the flood.”

Mayor Ron Corbett on Friday said the first buyouts marked an important step that was long in coming.

“I'm sorry it's taken so long,” he said. “I really feel for those who have had to wait and wait and wait.

“The process is beginning, and, hopefully, we'll get through it and people can get on with their lives.”

Barger and Stacy Michalec said the buyout checks they received on Friday were based on 100 percent of pre-flood assessed value of their property.

At Corbett's push, the federal government now has agreed to up that percentage figure to 107 percent, and both Barger and Michalec said they were told Friday that will receive a subsequent check for the difference.

“I hope they feel like we're fighting for them,” Corbett said.

Council member Chuck Wieneke, whose council district includes the hard-hit Time Check Neighborhood where the first three buyouts occurred, on Friday said that getting the federal dollars for buyouts into Iowa and now into the city and into the hands of property owners has been something of a crawl largely not of the city's making.

“I could not be more pleased that finally this step in closure has been taken for at least three individual property owners,” Wieneke said last night. “We have a long road to go.

“You can't say you've started down the road until you've taken the first step. And finally we have taken the first step.”

Barbara A. Akers, who had owned a home at 1522 First St. NW, also closed with the city on a buyout on Friday, the city reported.