FEMA agrees to rebuild Central Fire Station at a new location

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to fund rebuilding of Cedar Rapids' Central Fire Station at a new location, Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday.

That doesn't necessarily mean the station will move from 222 Third St. NW, vacant since the June 2008 flood, but it means the city can proceed with site selection and planning, Mayor Ron Corbett said.

“It gives us an opportunity now to plan our rebuilding effort,” Corbett said.

In October, FEMA informed the city it would provide $5.9 million to rebuild the fire station, but officials hadn't decided whether the money could be at a new location.

FEMA spokeswoman Crystal Payton said a new flood-plain map to be issued in April places the fire station in the 100-year flood plain. The building was shown in the 500-year flood plain on the current map, hurting the city's case that a new station there would be subject to “repeatable heavy damage.”

“We're acting on the most recent data,” Payton said.

The decision means FEMA will assist the city with site acquisition and demolition of the old building if needed - two costs the city would have carried on its own without the agency's approval.

Corbett said the city will launch a formal site-selection process like that under way for the public library. One site suggested for the library, the Emerald Knights building in the 700 block of First and Second avenues SE, is considered by at least one City Council member to be a good location for a fire station.

Corbett said it's too early to consider any site a favorite, and a decision must take into account response times too a large section of the city.

Culver announced FEMA's decision at a reception Thursday afternoon at the African American Museum of Iowa to celebrate the museum's own flood recovery and spotlight the role the I-JOBS program played in it. I-JOBS, the state's $830 million economic stimulus program, provided $268,510, about a third, of the museum's recovery costs.

I-JOBS “enabled us to recover without disturbing our normal funding sources,” said Tom Moore, the museum's executive director. “We're very fortunate to live in Iowa, where a disaster can be turned into an opportunity to come back better than ever.”

Culver said Linn County has received $93 million from I-JOBS.

“We're really creating the conditions that businesses need to create more jobs in the future,” he said.

Corbett noted the African-American Museum's recovery allowed it to add four part-time positions to its nine full-time jobs.

“If you're taking heat for it, and the legislators are taking heat for it, remember it's not just the jobs that were created, it's the jobs that were saved,” the mayor told the governor.