Amanda L. Rohde

Austin’s flooding problems may be coming to an end.

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Austin’s flooding problems may be coming to an end.

Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Gill Gutknecht (R-Minn.), the City of Austin will receive $2.5 million from the federal government to purchase homes in the flood plain and use the land for park development. The funds are currently being processed by the Federal Emergency Management Association and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority expects to receive them in the spring, says Tom Smith, Austin’s Deputy Director for Community Development.

Tuesday, Gutknecht toured the flood plain area of Austin to meet some of the homeowners there.

Tony Lecakis, a homeowner in the area, was visited by Gutknecht and explained his situation. Lecakis says he moved into his home in May, 1993 and saw it flood in June of the same year.

He says he knew it was in a flood plain and had flood insurance, but figured &uot;it was a 100-year&uot; flood. Unfortunately, this was not the case and his home flooded again in 1997.

He now has a deposit on a new home, but red tape has kept him from selling his old home to the city for demolition.

Gutknecht acknowledges this has been a problem. &uot;In a couple of these cases, we’re starting to run into some red tape we did not expect, so we’re going to try to make some phone calls to get the funding moving,&uot; he says.

Despite these few glitches, he believes the project has been successful. &uot;Many of the people in this area are seniors and do not want to go through this again,&uot; he says. &uot;This money allows us to buy up their homes and turn the land into green space…it’s better to let these people move to other parts of town and enjoy higher ground.&uot;

Mayor Bonnie Rietz says Gutknecht was &uot;instrumental in getting this funding…after the last round of floods, he came to me and said he’d like to help. He saw the damage, the mud and smelled the smells.&uot;

Now that the city has the funds, she says &uot;there’s nothing better than being able to come out and see the people we are helping.&uot;