City Seeking Public Opinion on Flood Money | Video

Amy Fox | 7/2/2012

Last week, Minot city officials met to discuss how they plan to divide up a federal fund worth more than $67 million. The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds will provide assistance to flood victims.

Now, the city is listening to the needs of the people.

The current proposal includes providing individual assistance to low-to-moderate income families. Under the proposed action plan, the city would not be providing individuals with cash, but assistance with materials and services.

With so many people affected by last year`s flood, city officials say the funds might not be enough to cover every individual applicant.

As Minot Flood Recovery Public Information Officer Mark Lyman explained, there are many things the city has to take into consideration before finalizing a proposal. "The city has to follow federal requirements that are in place from Housing and Urban Development and with HUD`s requirements. No, we can`t do cash reimbursements for people. We can`t do expense reimbursements for those who have already put money into their homes. We can`t give that money directly to homeowners. People would often site hurricane Katrina or even Grand Forks from 15 years ago. The requirements have changed since then. Unfortunately, the requirements have been taken away a lot of the opportunities people had in prior disasters. So, the city of Minot flood recovery these funds at least don`t simply have the same level of flexibility that we had years ago."

July 3 is the last day to leave comments with the city.

To leave comments, go to www.minotrecoveryinfo.com.

The city will review all of the comments and modify the proposed plan if needed. The final proposed action plan must be submitted to the federal government by July 23.

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