FEMA dropping objection to juvenile justice center plans

Remember the Federal Emergency Management Agency's objection last week to Linn County's new juvenile justice center project? Never mind.

After further review, FEMA won't require the county to conduct  a historical/environmental evaluation at the justice center site, 801 Third St. SW, Garth Fagerbakke, the county's construction services manager, told supervisors this morning.

“They're backing off,” Fagerbakke said.

It was mostly an academic question anyway – the supervisors were ready to shift about $300,000 from another county building projects to the juvenile center, then shifting the that amount of FEMA money to another eligible project.

Fagerbakke said FEMA officials decided the agency's share of the project isn't enough to “drive” it, so the county can go ahead with its original funding plan. The state's IJOBS program is expected to cover $4 million of the $6.7 million project, which will relocate juvenile courts, probation, and county attorneys from the lower level of the May's Island courthouse.

Fagerbakke said FEMA still wants to conduct an archaeological evaluation of the site – basically a review of record and plat books to confirm what was there before. The block was mostly residential, with the last building, the flood-damaged Freeway Lounge, demolished this spring.