2013-06-24 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

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she has contacted Congressman Clay, Senator McCaskill and Senator Blunt’s offices. She stated she is also meeting with the head of Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD.) Mayor Welsch said Councilmembers can do that individually. Mayor Welsch then clarified that the 27 million dollars was for the five year floodplain buy-out plan. She said if the federal budget ever eases up and they start putting money in for buyouts, that we would need $40 million to buyout homes in the ten-year flood plain, with a City match of ten million dollars. She said we should be contacting the City’s representatives at the federal level and makes our thoughts known to MSD. Mayor Welsch has been talking with MSD and hoped to set up a meeting where MSD can provide U City with an update of what their plans are in University City. The Mayor encouraged each and every Councilmember to personally contact Congressman Clay, Senator McCaskill and Senator Blunt. Mayor Welsch said Councilmembers should keep their eyes on what is happening in Washington, especially during the budget discussions. Ms. Carr said she also had contact with Hazel Erby and Congressman Clay, but felt the immediate need was to deal with MSD. The flood victims need to file a complaint and suggested the City could have a Saturday workshop where several volunteers could help the victims fill out the form to get them started and explain the process one on one. Ms. Carr said they are under duress and it is very confusing to many of them. She said MSD will turn many of them down so the City needs to help them set up an appeals process. Ms. Carr said Nova Felton did this in 2008 and provided her with all her files and would help her walk through it. She said if we could get some staff to assist too. Ms. Carr said this was an immediate need. She said the City needed to deal with MSD to clean the channels that are full of trees and silt. Ms Carr said the City needs to require MSD take care of their river. She stated their river and branches flood onto her constituents land and they say the sewers did not overcharge; it was overland flooding and we will not cover it. Ms. Carr said MSD must maintain their channel and they are not doing it. She said this is the kind of immediate pressure she would like to do and would be glad to write letters, make phone calls and twist someone’s arm and help in whatever needs to be done right away. Mr. Price said having someone to assist the flood victims was a good idea, especially the appeal process. He said at a previous meeting with MSD, they claimed the resident whose property backed the channel, owned that portion of the channel. He encouraged these residents not to go into the channel to clean it, as they would then be taking ownership of the channel. He said he would use every ounce of fiber to do something about this, as it is his top priority. Mr. Sharpe remembered when Council had a meeting with MSD at their headquarters and asked if there was a possibility of setting a meeting up again with MSD. Mr. Walker said if that was the desire of Council he would see if he could arrange it. 16