(Spencer)– City Manager Kevin Robinson briefed the Spencer City Council earlier this week on a recent visit he and other community leaders made to the statehouse in Des Moines. Robinson says he was invited by State Representative Megan Jones to testify before the House Local Government Committee, which she chairs. Robinson says he talked about the impacts of the June flood…
“We talked about the 911 system impact of the disaster, and funding requested to improve and upgrade our 911 system. We talked about the general flood damage to rental properties, our 404 buyout program and commercial businesses that were impacted. We saw the state of Iowa already allow us to reallocate $1.3 million to be directed towards that earlier. Wastewater treatment plant impact and the scanning of our sewer system that was impacted, it’s about $1 million total, roughly, to do all of that, requested funding for that.”
Robinson says insurance was also a topic of discussion…
“We advocated for what we saw occur during the disaster response, the inconsistency of insurance companies and their responses to claims. Governor Reynolds is already ahead of us, has started to work on a layer in disasters where there’s a state advocate for policy holders that are impacted in disasters and making sure the insurance companies consistently pay out on claims that are eligible.”
Robinson says representatives of Spencer Municipal Utilities, Spencer Chamber of Commerce, and the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation also attended the statehouse event.
