Iola’s Riverside Park — containing some of the most indelible images of the 2007 flood — is now officially considered in a flood plain.
Iola commissioners learned this week that the city’s updated flood maps, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, count the park as an area susceptible to a “100-year flood.”
What that means for the city is more costly flood insurance coverage for the park’s two community buildings and bathhouse for the 2-year-old swimming pool. Other park structures, such as the baseball and softball diamonds and the pool itself are not insured for flooding.
The new designation also places stricter standards on any new construction projects within the park. Those facilities must either be elevated above the flood zone or designed as flood-proof, Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Bauer said.
The flood plain change had been expected for some time, City Administrator Judy Brigham said, because of the anticipated cost necessary to extend the park’s levee system to its east side.
The levee, built in 1938 as part of the Works Progress Administration effort, protects Riverside on its north, west and south sides.
An old railroad corridor on the park’s east side provides some protection, but its failure in 2007 caused swollen floodwaters from Elm Creek to fill the park with more than 12 feet of water. The subsequent damage from the bathtub effect of the trapped water prompted the city to replace the swimming pool and one of the new community buildings. The Recreation Community Building, meanwhile, underwent major repairs and renovations.
Extending the levee to the park’s east side “would cost us millions of dollars that we can’t afford,” Brigham said.
The flood plain certification was not a direct result of the 2007 flood, but rather coincided with periodic updating of the flood plain maps, Brigham said.
Brigham was unsure how much the city’s flood insurance premiums will rise, “but I’m sure it will be thousands of dollars,” she said.
It’s too soon to tell how two other facilities inside the park, Columbia Metal and the football stadium, will be affected by the new designation.
Columbia Metal is housed in a city-owned building leased to Iola Industries, which in turn subleases the building to the window manufacturing company.
The company did not have flood insurance prior to the 2007 flood but did after, Plant Manager Harlan Cleaver said.
“Now that we’re in the flood plain, we’re not sure if we will be able to get insurance any more,” Cleaver said.
That would mean a return to the company’s practice prior to 2007, of paying for any repairs itself.
Meanwhile, the football stadium owned by USD 257 has not been covered by flood insurance.
Debbie Taiclet of Iola Insurance Associates, which serves as the school district’s insurance carrier, said she was unsure whether flood protection would be necessary with the new designation.
“We haven’t heard anything yet from FEMA about the changes,” Taiclet said.
AS AN ASIDE, Iola still is awaiting word from FEMA on when its buyout program can be officially considered closed.
Using FEMA funds, the city purchased and demolished more than 110 flooded properties, primarily in Davis Addition and elsewhere in south Iola.
All of the FEMA funds to purchase the homes and relocate property owners has been distributed — the final check was given just a few weeks ago — but the program still is not considered closed, Brigham said.
With the program still considered active, the city has been prohibited from purchasing other dilapidated properties in the flood zone that did not qualify for the FEMA buyouts.
“We still get questions about why we haven’t torn down some of the other old houses,” Mayor Bill Maness said Monday. “We can’t until this grant is closed.”
