HARTFORD — City officials in Hartford learned Wednesday evening that the city’s levee, which is owned by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, is now certified, which officially takes the town out of the flood plain.
The city had provisional certification for the levee since June 2007. Lyon County Flood Plain Manager Samuel Seeley, said at Wednesday evening’s city council meeting that he is waiting on an official letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) but have spoken to officials on the phone and the levee is certified.
Because the levee is certified, the city residents aren’t required to purchase flood insurance. However, Seeley urged residents to consider purchasing flood insurance at a preferred rate.
“There is talk flying around that they (federal government) is going to start requiring those who live behind a levee to have flood insurance,” Seeley said. “If you were to get flood insurance now, and on a preferred policy it can be $100 a year instead of thousands of dollars a year.”
Seeley said if mandates would come on flood insurance it likely wouldn’t start in Kansas first but at any time somebody could step in and impose the requirement. Seeley said a disaster could happen at any time with the levee, as recent disasters such as the New Orleans levee break have proven.
“It’s only a piece of ground,” Seeley said, of the levee.
Seeley said fire-related floods would not be covered under homeowners’ insurance.
“If you get a flood and it burns your house down, because it’s flood induced, (home insurance) won’t cover your home,” he said.
In other business, Bruce Boettcher, of BG Consultants spoke to city officials regarding the town’s water improvement project. They spoke in executive session regarding land easement with water lines. After executive session, council members decided to run the line another direction, which wouldn’t require any easement. The land easement would have had to come from the Corps, which isn’t an easy process, said Mayor Roy Black.
Boettcher said he hopes to advertise for bids for the project in March, which would put the start of the project at June to July 1.