COMMERCE CITIZENS ARGUE OVER BUYOUT

COMMERCE -- Federal Emergency Management Agency officials told Commerce residents who favor a federal buyout plan for the city that they should remove their elected officials from office if the city council does not approve the plan.

"If your elected officials are not doing what the majority of the people want them to do, then it is up to you to vote them out," Bob Blair, a hazard mitigation specialist with FEMA, told a group of residents Wednesday.

"Those people are supposed to abide by your wishes; if they don't, replace them."

Wednesday night, FEMA representatives tried to answer questions of more than 40 weary residents who have fought floodwaters for more than six months. Route E, the main thoroughfare in Commerce, is flooded out east of town once again due to the most recent rise in the Mississippi River.

More than a dozen of the residents who packed the cramped Commerce City Hall stepped forward when FEMA representatives asked if anyone was interested in a federal buyout of their property.

"What has the government got for people whose homes are flooded every year?" one resident asked. "Floodwaters are like an unwelcome visitor who comes to impose on us every year -- all because the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers has re-channeled the Mississippi River.

"I want to leave; my 72-year-old mother wants to leave," the woman continued. "What do we have to do for you to buy our land and let us move to higher ground?"

The answer to that question rests with the Commerce City Council, which currently is grappling with the question of whether or not it wants to participate in the federal buyout plan.

About half the council members and the mayor are concerned about whether the city could bear the cost of demolishing the structures and the upkeep of the abandoned lots if the buyout was approved.

Other council members feel the citizens should have a right to leave without the city's interference.

At a city council meeting in August, Councilman Roy Jones said: "It's a big pain for people living with the water like this. If there's a way out for people who are sick of the floods, then I'm in favor of it."

The issue will come up for a vote at a special city council meeting Monday. If the buyout is approved, Huck already has the paperwork necessary to initiate the application process.

If approved, FEMA or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would buy property from landowners who have sustained extensive damage from the flooding, or who have been flooded out three or more times in the last three years.

The land would then be appraised and the owners would be made an offer by FEMA. If the resident accepts the offer, the deed will be turned over to the city, which must promise never to allow another habitable structure to be built on the land.

The process could take nine months to a year to make its way through the federal and state systems, FEMA representatives said.

The representatives answered what questions they could, but when it came to whether or not the city would approve the buyout, they offered only one solution: to get rid of the elected barriers in the property owners' way..

Mayor Ann Huck and the council members in attendance sat quietly during the meeting. At one point, when challenged by a resident that the impending vote has already been decided, Huck said, "You don't know how we're going to vote Monday. It's all up to us; you can pass judgment on Monday."