FEMA tells Cedar Rapids it won’t pay to put flood-ruined animal shelter at Kirkwood site

CEDAR RAPIDS - The city's current plan for a new animal shelter to replace its flood-ruined one in a former sewage treatment plant along the river was always going to cost millions in local dollars.

The cost to the city for the proposed $7.7-million facility, though, is going up, perhaps in the ball park of $700,000.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has informed the city that it will not pay for the cost of the land to build a new animal shelter on a different site, Joe O'Hern, the city's flood recovery and reinvestment director, said on Wednesday.

FEMA has determined that the former shelter, at 1401 Cedar Bend Lane SW off Old River Road SW at a far edge of the city, sustained more than 50-percent damage in the flood of 2008 and so qualifies for rebuilding. However, FEMA has concluded that the new facility can be rebuilt at the old site in the 100-year flood plain where it can be elevated or otherwise protected from future flooding, O'Hern said.

He said FEMA will provide the city with an estimated $1.16-million to rebuild, but the city had hoped FEMA also would pay the city additional money to purchase land at a new site for the new facility.

In December, the City Council voted to put the new shelter on a site at Kirkwood Community College along 76th Avenue SW, the cost of which was estimated at $700,000 at the time.

Diane Webber, manager of the city's Animal Care and Control operation, said Wednesday that the actual cost for the Kirkwood site is expected to be less than the estimated cost.

O'Hern said the city asked FEMA to consider that the road into the old animal shelter frequently floods, a fact that has prompted the city to argue that the road would need to be raised at some expense if the shelter returns to its former site. FEMA said the road cost isn't eligible for FEMA funds or its project-cost consideration, O'Hern said.

“We're going to have to take a look at where this leaves us,” he said. “And if we do want to move it to another site, what some of those options might be and how much that is going to cost us and how do we fill any funding gaps. There's some discussion that's got to happen first.”

The city's Webber said there has been no timeline set for when construction might start on a new shelter or when it might open.

The city's Animal Care and Control operation continues in temporary quarters at 2109 North Towne Lane NE, where it set up shop after the June 2008 flood. The current lease is up in August, Webber said.

“Until something happens, we don't have a choice,” Webber said of life without a permanent shelter.

The city began serious talk about relocating the former shelter back in 2006, two years before the flood and soon after Jim Prosser, the city's former city manger, arrived at City Hall. A rough estimate of the cost for a new shelter was put at $3.5 million back then.