Idea for aiding levee project is moving along [The Hutchinson News, Kan.]

Nov. 05--Kirk Ebmeier, who owns a home in Ring Levee C west of the city, says he's getting noting but cooperation from Hutchinson and Reno County officials as he works on a plan to finance renovation of the levee so residents inside it won't have to buy costly flood insurance.

"I can't be more complimentary about the cooperation I'm getting," Ebmeier said after a meeting on Friday with City Manager John Deardoff and two other city officials and on Wednesday with County Administrator Gary Meagher and County Counselor Joe O'Sullivan.

Ebmeier and the officials are working on a proposal to create a Community Improvement District to finance $421,000 in improvements to Levee C, which would be repaid over 20 years by the owners of property within the levee.

The next step will be at a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Reno Valley Middle School, 1616 N. Wilshire Drive, when Ebmeier hopes to gauge whether there is support for a petition to ask either the city or county to create the district.

The petition would have to be signed by property owners representing at least 55 percent of the property by land area and at least 55 percent by assessed value. There are 392 parcels with Levee C. That includes 337 residential parcels, representing about 22 percent of the land area and 92 percent of the assessed value. Twelve agricultural parcels and 14 farm homesteads account for about 74 percent of the land area and 5.7 percent of the assessed value.

Assuming the residents are interested in a CID, Ebmeier and Deardoff said the city and county need to hammer out whether it would be best to submit the petition to the city or the county.

"We don't know if we can actually do it," Deardoff said. "We're checking with bond counsel. My goal is to help them figure out a solution, whether it's the city or the county."

The city owns the levee, but the levee is outside the city in an unincorporated area of the county. Meagher told the County Commission on Tuesday that if the petition was submitted to the county, the county would need to contract with the city for the work on the levee and then simply pass the money through to the city.

Whichever entity receives the petition would issue bonds to pay for the repairs and then recover the costs of repaying the bonds through special assessments against the property within the levee.

Ebmeier said that the residents need to decide how those costs would be divvied up among the property owners and to state that in their petition. He said there are two ways of doing that. One would be a flat fee paid by each property owner for 20 years. Assuming that the cost of the project, including interest and legal fees, would be about $650,000, he figures that flat fee would be about $100 a year for each of about 350 owners.

Another, more complicated way would be to base the amount assessed against each property on the proportion of the total general property taxes paid by property owners within the levee.

Because the levee and the property it protects is outside the city, the City Council left Levee C out when it authorized about $1.3 million in improvements to the other levees protecting the city from flooding by the Arkansas River and Cow Creek.

The city wanted the county to pay for the improvements to Levee C, but the County Commission said it could not because the levees were owned by the city and were a city responsibility.

The city has a contract to maintain all the levees to the standards of the Army Corps of Engineers, which built the levees. But FEMA has set a higher standard for protection against a 100-year flood.

A consultant who evaluated the entire levee system for the city reported that about 140 feet of the north side of Levee C needs to be raised by as much as 1 foot and two areas near the southeast corner of the levee need improvements to eliminate the possibility of under seepage, which could cause a breach in the levee.

Ebmeier said O'Sullivan has provided the relevant state statutes governing Community Improvement Districts, while the city has provided descriptions of the improvements needed and an estimate of their cost. The city also is providing copies of petitions for similar CIDs that the City Council has approved and is putting him in touch with experts who can help draft the petition.

In addition to gauging the interest of the Levee C community in general on Thursday, Ebmeier said he needs to identify people who will help carry the petition through the community and collect signatures and help pay for up front legal fees.

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