(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors this (Tues.) morning took no action on a resolution spelling out deadlines for getting formal plans finalized for the Lower Gar Bridge project. The permitting process has been slowed due to technicalities from the Federal Emergency Management Agency which requested additional information from the Flood Center at the University of Iowa, which is also involved in the process. Supervisor Steve Dullard today (Tues.) offered a resolution setting a specific deadline for the county to receive that information…
“Whereas the Dickinson County Board of Supervisors supports a working plan to support current requests from FEMA, therefore be it resolved Jeff Rose, our County Engineer, along with assistance and review of County Attorney Steve Goodlow, compile and complete the entire administrative information requests by February 10th, 2025 or sooner. Secondly, be it resolved Dr. Tony Weber complete the entire technical aspect of the FEMA request with review by Jeff Rose, County Engineer, by February 10th.”
Dullard again said it’s important the county does whatever it takes to expedite the matter…
“All I’m looking for is to set up a timeline for us. Just because they have 90 days to respond doesn’t mean we need to take 90 days. That’s half a year. If we give them 90 days and we take 90 days. All I’m looking for is for us to move forward with this as quickly as we possibly can.”
Fellow Supervisor Steve Clark questioned the effectiveness of setting a specific date, saying the county has no say over how long it’s going to take the flood center to put together the needed information…
“How can we set a date, you know, a specific date? I could see where we could put, say, a two-week period after the response is received from the University of Iowa or the Iowa Flood Center, but if they don’t respond back to us until February 5th, the February 10th date is out of the question, in my opinion.”
No action was taken on the resolution, but the supervisors said they want weekly updates on where things are at.
