Commissioners dissolve county floodplain board

Aug. 6--Muskogee County commissioners on Monday dissolved a board that oversaw the administration of floodplain regulations.

The move was made to facilitate a more efficient means of processing permits that have been pouring in since near-record flooding damaged almost 900 inhabited structures along the Arkansas River. Those who plan to rebuild within the floodplain are required to get permits, and failure to comply jeopardizes the entire county's eligibility for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Muskogee County Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith said processing all the applications during the board's monthly meetings was not feasible for the applicants or the board. After studying the issue, he said the mandate that required counties have floodplain boards was eliminated by statute in 2014.

"With a situation like this, when we are getting applications for permits daily, we can't wait a month to get those issued," Smith said. "And having multiple meetings is a huge expense not only for the board members but to the county."

District 1 Commissioner Ken Doke said every day applicants have to wait to have floodplain permits approved is another day they are "displaced from their homes." Dissolving the board and authorizing Smith, who also serves as floodplain administrator, to process those permits would expedite the process.

"We don't have a tremendous amount of discretion anyway -- they either meet these requirements or they don't," Doke said. "We are not making a lot of decisions other than making sure they comply."

Smith agreed, saying there "is a minimum requirement that every home in Muskogee County must meet or exceed." If they don't meet those requirements, he said, a permit will not be issued -- any appeals would be heard by commissioners, who meet weekly.

"When you talk about 830-plus structures, all of those will have to be compliant if they were substantially damaged," Smith said. "And the numbers are growing every day on substantially damaged homes."

District 3 Commissioner Kenny Payne expressed some reluctance about the measure but ultimately supported it, saying commissioners needed "to be waiting on" those who were impacted by recent flooding.

"They don't need to be waiting on us," Payne said.

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