(Spencer)– The Spencer City Council Monday evening was updated on buyouts and demolitions of properties heavily damaged or destroyed in the 2024 flood. City Manager Kevin Robinson says one of those programs is backed by the city. It includes those properties that weren’t accepted into the FEMA buyout program…
“Those properties include the seven apartment quadplexes to the west of Merril Company/Consumer Lumber, that area. Those are included. There’s three properties owned by Community Housing Initiatives south of Lincoln School, those are included. And then there’s two properties that are owned by Hardees, just to the east of Hardees. Those will all be in the first round of RFP.”
Robinson says requests for proposals are due back to the city around the middle of October, with possible action by the council in late October…
“The dollars for that, just as a reminder, are covered by the IEDA Brownfield Grant that we received, it’s actually a forgivable loan I should say, from the state of Iowa. If we had not received that, we would have to find the money to take those properties down.”
Robinson says no taxpayer money will be used in the program. He also gave an update on the FEMA property buyouts through what’s known as the 404 program…
“We’re still in the process for the acquisitions for those. We anticipate to release that RFP in November with the demolitions to occur hopefully towards the end of November but December, January. We hope before the hard winter hits in January that those are down.”
Robinson says those structures must be removed within 90 days of the city awarding a bid for the demolitions. He adds that there’s a requirement under the 404 federal program stipulating that no reconstruction can ever occur on those properties, which will be transitioned to green space.
