Council puts downtown parking ramp at top of alternative project list

There was a time late last spring when the City Council thought it would get $36.4 million in special Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds in trade for flood-damaged city facilities that won't be brought back to life.

By July, FEMA had revised the dollar figure downward - to zero.

The city has appealed the FEMA rulings, and on Tuesday, the council took a new stab at prioritizing projects for which it will use what is called “alternative-project” funding should the city's appeals succeed.

After a short noontime council meeting on Tuesday, five council members - Mayor Ron Corbett, Monica Vernon, Justin Shields, Don Karr and Chuck Swore - said they first would spend any such funding to help build a new downtown parking ramp near the new federal courthouse.

A sixth, Chuck Wieneke, put the city's Event Center project, the cost of which is increasing, at the top of his list.

Three other council members who did not attend the Tuesday meeting had yet to weigh in.

Among other projects on the priority list and in need of some funding are the NewBo City Market, the riverfront amphitheater, a new Intermodal Transit Facility, neighborhood centers, a downtown trail loop and street work in the new Medical District.

Earlier in the year, the city thought FEMA would pay it about $21 million for the city-owned, former Sinclair plant; about $13 million for the city's hydroelectric plant at the 5-in-1 bridge; and $2 to $3 million for the city-owned, former Quality Chef plant in New Bohemia.

Corbett noted on Tuesday that the money expected from the hydroelectric plant initially was to have been used for an energy-related project like a waste-to-energy incinerator at the Water Pollution Control facility.

However, Corbett suggested that the city has higher priorities than the incinerator now that the city has zero funds from the alternative-project program and may only get a piece of the total it had hoped for in the spring.

The city's First Street Parkade also is eligible for alternative-project funding, but Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, noted that the funding will be used to cover the cost of demolition.

The multimillion-dollar demolition of the former Sinclair plant will not be deducted from any funding related to the plant because FEMA had deemed the plant an “imminent threat” to health and safety, Eyerly noted.