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<br />and City of Florissant for assisting with setting up a shelter, United Way, and BJC <br />Service Counseling. Ms. Feier thanked everyone for their spirit and willingness <br />to work together in helping each other. Moving forward, the concern is to <br />continue to supply dumpsters for removing debris for another week. Volunteer <br />agencies were scheduled to help assist flood victims for several weeks. Ms. <br />Feier is working hard at getting FEMA to declare University City a disaster area <br />in order to get assistance for the homes’ safety clean up. The Mayor of <br />University City and the Governor declared a State of Emergency for University <br />City and FEMA came in and assessed about 300 properties and will take this <br />information back to Washington DC and in about three weeks the City should <br />learn of their decision. It is necessary to have FEMA to declare the City a <br />disaster in order for individuals to be able to receive assistance from the <br />government. <br /> <br />Mayor Adams signed the Declaration of Emergency, seconded by Mr. Glickert <br />and was approved unanimously. <br /> <br />City Manager Feier gave a brief history of the Army Engineer involvement in <br />accessing the River DesPeres starting in 1988. Since this time MSD has also <br />assisted in funding a number of studies. The City has spent $750,000 on bridge <br />rehabs and $375,000 on Wilson property buyouts. MSD has spent over $12 <br />million on the channel since 1988. The Corp of Engineers will be meeting with <br />the City in the next week to discuss the priorities and how we should move <br />forward. They are looking at doing more retention concepts, buyouts, and flood <br />proofing, as lifting a structure. A recent assessment with this area showed <br />buyout in a concentrated area along Wilson was the preference. This would also <br />create a retention area to alleviate pressure in other areas of River DesPeres. <br /> <br /> <br />Mr. Brian Hoelscher, Director of Engineering and Mr. Johnathan Sprague, Director of <br />Operations for Missouri Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) were present to address and <br />discuss MSD’s position in the flash flood. <br /> <br />How did we get here and how do we move forward? <br /> <br />Mr. Hoelscher stated that the flooding that took place is something that you don’t <br />control it is something that exists. It can be mitigated to a degree but buyout is <br />the preferred. In looking forward he stated that buyouts, flood proofing and <br />creating retention areas to slow down the run-off into River DesPeres would be <br />the preference. The discussion will depend on the risk to be taken; how much do <br />you want to spend, what will you gain, when will it happen again. Mr. Hoelscher <br />said it will happen again but when is not known. He said the mitigation should be <br />as to what is the right level of expenditure and still be able to protect people. <br /> <br />Mr. Price asked if the water flow was compacted in University City or did it start <br />at other places? Mr. Hoelscher stated it was an entire water shed event; it <br />included the entire County. Mr. Price asked about the debris and overgrowth in <br />the channels affecting the water flow. Mr. Hoelscher said that MSD is <br />responsible for cleaning out debris and overgrowth out of River DesPeres. <br />Hoelscher noted that as a rainfall event that just happened, a lot of the debris in <br /> <br />