Boulder County family’s flood repairs fall in gap between cost, FEMA funding cap

Dec. 08--Conflicting information from Boulder County, state and federal officials has put James Fay and his family in a difficult place as they have tried to attain public funding to repair their home damaged by the 2013 flood.

Confusion over whether elevating the home by several feet to further protect it against flooding is eligible for federal grant funding has tied up $15,500 donated toward Fay's project in 2016, and has stopped him from repairing cracks to the home's foundation incurred in the flood.

He feels his experience underscores the difficulty of complying with federal and state disaster funding rules, a point also highlighted by the recent discovery that more than $60 million-worth of public transportation flood recovery projects in Boulder and Larimer counties could possibly be ineligible for FEMA reimbursement. The uncertainty is due to discord between the codes and standards to which the federal agency requires such projects to conform, and those used to complete road construction in local mountain canyons.

"It's incredibly frustrating," Fay said.

Restrictive funding rules

Fay anticipates he cannot obtain a building permit to fix the foundation unless he elevates his Robin Drive home because it lies in Left Hand Creek's 100-year floodplain, which online Boulder County property records confirm.

But raising a home by 4 feet is an expensive task. Bids for the job solicited by the county -- which helped Fay with a hazard mitigation grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- came in at around $200,000, too high to be eligible for the federal funds, according to Boulder County officials and Fay.

State officials, who handle FEMA funds before they are distributed to county, municipal and individual beneficiaries, set a $175,000 cap for the project, county officials said.

Twice, Fay said, he and his family were told to temporarily move out of the house -- which has been habitable since the flood waters retreated, despite the damaged foundation -- so work could begin on the elevation, only to learn of another last-minute snag that held up the project.

State and federal officials say the project hasn't been denied outright, and could possibly still be funded.

"At this point, I'm worn out, I want to move on," Fay said. "I've seen my kids literally double in size since this happened. They're having to live ... with this uncertainty over knowing if the home they grew up in will be fixed."

The situation is not isolated to Fay. Leaders of the Boulder County Collaborative group of local officials that led flood recovery efforts said bids received earlier this year for four home elevations -- two in Lyons and two in Jamestown -- also came in with estimates too pricey to meet state and federal requirements to move forward.

"We have not received any requests for additional funding, nor have we received any requests to withdraw a project," FEMA Region 8 spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said, noting the state was awarded the funding to pass on to the five elevation projects.

County eating $40K in expenses

But Fay, along with the county and Longmont officials Kathy Fedler and Philip Strom, who led the collaborative, have resigned themselves to the home elevations looking unlikely unless restrictions loosen.

"FEMA never denied the (Fays') project per se. The project was never able to become eligible because bids came in such that the project could not be completed for $175,000," said Leslie Irwin, a policy analyst for the Boulder County Commissioners' Office.

She added that she isn't surprised FEMA views the project as still open, because "for this specific project, we just recently initiated close-out on our end and have not yet informed (the state) or FEMA by extension that we are closing out. ..."

Funding for the projects in Lyons and Jamestown expired because officials failed to secure bids that fell below the $175,000 cost cap, Fedler said.

County officials decided to close out the Fay's home elevation without it moving forward despite having spent five figures -- including about $20,000 on a design plan paid to an outside firm -- in hard costs and staff time.

"It's about $40,000 that we'll be eating on this," Irwin said.

Mystery donation

To add to the complexity, Fay said the county received a donation from Catholic Charities Denver on his family's behalf to help him meet his matching requirement on the elevation grant. He has demanded the county reimburse the organization.

But Catholic Charities Denver leaders claim their records show no such donation was made toward the project, despite county officials stating they have documentation showing a $15,500 donation in June 2016 on behalf of the Fays.

The donation came from a group of volunteer organizations formed to assist in the disaster recovery known as the Long-Term Flood Recovery Group, which has since been dissolved, with the county taking control of the funds. County officials were told last month by the former group's fiscal agent, Foothills United Way, that the donation originated with Catholic Charities Denver, Irwin said.

"We have not received a copy of the check or other documents clearly indicating that the funds originated with Catholic Charities Denver," Irwin said.

Catholic Charities Denver spokeswoman Nissa LaPoint suggested contacting the national organization Catholic Charities USA to see if the donation to Fay came from it, but its spokeswoman Patricia Cole said it donates only to its member agencies, such as the Denver branch, in the wake of disasters.

"As such, we have no information on the financial situation of (Fay)," Cole said.

Irwin said the county intends to return the full $15,500 to the proper donor in light of the September decision by the county to give up on Fay's project.

"There is no way the commissioners would not remit that full amount," Irwin said.

Catholic Charities Denver will continue working with the county to determine to whom the donation should be returned, LaPoint said.

But when it is decided which organization should accept the funds from the county, it will be given a choice of whether to divert a $1,475 chunk of the full donation directly to the Fays because the family was required to purchase flood insurance in order to be considered for the federal home elevation grant program, according to Irwin.

Fay has paid that amount in premiums, despite his mortgage not dictating he buy flood insurance, he said.

While he has asked for reimbursement of the $1,475 from the county, he said he wouldn't accept it out of the money donated.

"It's not fair to the charities to have this money tied up that long," said Fay, who was never in control of the donation.

Sam Lounsberry: 303-473-1322, [email protected] and twitter.com/samlounz.

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