“The next phase of what the town has already done to mitigate the airport flooding has found the monies to continue the project,” Taylor Town Manager Gus Lundberg advised members of the town council May 5 prior to their approval of the project.
Lundberg explained that they were working on the project two years ago, but it stopped on the detention basin at the airport.
The opportunity has risen with additional money provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to continue the project, according to Lundberg.
FEMA is considering the Airport Wash Flood Control Project under the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant programs for fiscal year 2016. The airport wash flood control project has been identified by the Arizona Division of Emergency Management as a high-priority project under both PDM and FMA grant programs.
Lundberg said the “soft match includes town staff construction labor, equipment, administration and project management, and possibly some town funds will be needed. Navajo County Flood Control has committed $56,250 for the project, which will ensure a minimum 25 percent non-federal cost share.”
A design, engineering, construction and administration budget of the flood control project to resolve the localized flooding has been documented by FEMA guidelines in the amount of approximately $450,000, and requires the town to provide a 25 percent match.
Once the detention basin is completed, the town would begin the process of getting the flood plain resolved with FEMA, which will have a big impact on insurance rates along Airport Wash, beginning south of the Taylor Regional Airport, and northeast between Fifth Street East and Seventh Street East from Willow Lane to Paper Mill Road, which has been delineated by FEMA as a flood hazard area.
The council approved Resolution 2016-05, the Airport Flood Control Project.
