Fairview Beach gets funding to study erosion problem

Feb. 24--State and federal agencies will spend $307,000 to study the erosion problems at Fairview Beach and determine how to keep a road and water pipe on one bank of the waterfront community from falling into the Potomac River.

The grant includes $230,193 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $61,384 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. King George County has to come up with about 5 percent of the cost, or about $15,000, for the engineering study, according to VDEM.

The award does not guarantee the same sources will put up funds to fix the problem. Christopher Werle, chairman of the King George County Service Authority Board of Directors, has stressed that point repeatedly as he's worked with agencies on the complicated grant application.

He made the same point recently in announcing the award.

"I am optimistic that FEMA and the state will also fund construction of the needed mitigation project," he told fellow board members. "However, as I have cautioned before, there is no guarantee until we have the actual award notification and administration agreement in hand."

Mike Bennett, president of the Fairview Beach Residents Association, was appointed to the Service Authority board in January and said he was "extremely happy and relieved" to get the grant.

"I know it's just Phase 1, engineering and design, but you have to do Phase 1 before you can get to Phase 2," he said, adding he didn't think FEMA "would be going forward with the cost of the design if they didn't think it was likely going to get constructed."

For more than 20 years, Fairview Beach residents have raised money--to the tune of about $300,000--through bake sales and dinners to keep the river at bay. Members told the Board of Supervisors in 2015 that they needed help dealing with ongoing erosion, and Werle started exploring financial sources.

When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't select the King George project for a study in summer 2016, Werle looked to FEMA.

The stabilization efforts focus on Fairview Drive, near the corner of Second Street, where the road and water pipe are about 6 feet from the edge of the bluff. If the cliff crumbled and destroyed the infrastructure, it would cost about $11 million to rebuild, according to the grant application.

However, fixing the problem before it happened would cost $2.3 million, according to the request.

"That is a really good ratio of return on investment," Robbie Coates, Virginia's grant manager for disaster programs, said in October. "It would be a huge savings in future damages."

The grant money for Fairview Beach was the largest of eight awards, totaling almost $1 million, announced by VDEM. It's also different from the others, which included emergency generators in Pittsylvania County and the cities of Hampton and Poquoson; updates to three regional hazard mitigation plans in the state; and inclusion of insurance loss data into the state's hazard mitigation plan.

King George's project would mark the first soil stabilization project in Virginia funded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, according to VDEM.

Werle estimated the design and engineering study would take six to eight months, from the initial request for proposal to the completion of work. When that phase is complete, King George County will seek funding for the project's construction.

Werle said "FEMA had stated earlier that it really liked our project and wanted to move forward with it," but final approval and funding for the first phase probably were delayed by flooding and hurricanes in Houston and Puerto Rico last August and September.

"I can't see FEMA not funding the mitigation project as well, but you can never be certain until you get to that point in the process," he said.

In Story News WidgetC2F278094FACCEA612EE51C5639E1537subscribehttp://www.fredericksburg.com/newslettershttp://www.fredericksburg.com/newsletters

Get the headlines newsletter in your inbox each day with the top stories.

htmlCancelSubscribe

___

(c)2018 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)

Visit The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) at www.fredericksburg.com/flshome

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.