Resident Wants to Know When U City Will Proceed With Flood Buyouts

Now that University City has received the additional grant money that caused it to delay the Wilson Avenue Flood Buyout, when will it begin negotiating with residents to buy their homes, inquired the Rev. Willie Burns at Monday night's City Council meeting.

University City Mayor Shelley Welsch told Burns someone would be in touch with him tomorrow (Tuesday).

In an email to University City Patch on Monday, City Manager Lehman Walker said U City was awarded a Community Development Block Grant for disaster assistance in the amount of $461,000. The grant money was designated solely for the Wilson Avenue buyout. University City had set aside $1 million in City reserves for the Wilson Avenue buyout. Now, that the new grant money has come in, only $539,000 will be required for the buyout. So the City can put back into reserves $461,000.

The grant was worth nearly a million dollars.

So, why didn't U City get the entire amount? "There was only three million dollars available statewide and 13 grant applications were submitted," said Walker. He added "we were very fortunate in being selected and not all requests were fully funded. "

Walker said it was a very competitive process. " We were very fortunate to have been allocated $461,000." 

In his email to U City Patch, Walker said "City staff is in the process of preparing the environmental assessment that is a condition of the grant award."

The Rev. Willie Burns' home is one of the 26 houses slated to be bought by the City.  Burns told University City Patch he's relieved that the City has been awarded the additional grant money but he won't rest at night until he knows when the City will restart talks to buy them out.

"It's a relief, but they (the City) can't tell us how long, and the flooding is going to start. It's getting ready to start in April." He added "we need to know how long it's going to take, and we hope to get an answer before the flooding starts. We've been waiting a long time. They have the money."

Council member Byron Price (Third Ward) also expressed frustration at Monday night's meeting that residents weren't being told when the City would jump start buyout negotiations.

"If the city manager has an answer... he can't tell people tonight?" I'm just trying to make clear... if the answer is present tonight, why wouldn't someone be able to answer the question. Why would somebody have to wait to get an answer."

The city manager has continued to stress that pursuing the new grant in no way meant ditching the buyout plan. There is no possibility of  the City not purchasing the homes he said.

U City staff will host a meeting on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. in the EOC Room (Basement) of City Hall, 6801 Delmar Boulevard to explain the next steps for the City and anticipated timeframe.