City Council Votes "No" To Flood Proposal | Video

Julie Leonardi | 12/18/2012

It only took a 30 minute meeting for the city council to make a decision on FEMA’s proposed new flood plain. Councilman Bob Miller made an opening remark before the vote, "We cannot be bound by the shackles and chains and restrictions that will detract from our own self determination of our beloved valley."

The voting came to a unanimous "No." One man expressed his opinion to the council, explaining that he’s against the change. Little did he know, the council agreed with him. "You got to fight them every bit of the way. And if you can`t get this money, you find a different way to get it."

Although there were some positives coming with FEMA`s grant money, the negatives simply outweighed them. Mayor Curt Zimbelman said, "I think overwhelmingly the negatives with the building permits and the new ordinance that would go into place, the council saw that as just too much."

Members of the city council are saying that this will give people more time to figure out how to get back inside their home and will act as a wakeup call.

"Our action today buys time for the people. So I would encourage everybody to think through their personal situation and come to grips with it and take action as soon as possible." Miller explained.

But it`s important for Minot residents to know what`s next. "The hard reality of this is at some point and we need to understand this, FEMA may well impose this upon us."

"FEMA will come out with their new firm maps which is their insurance maps, and they`re saying that could be anywhere within three to five years and at that point then we will have to put that in place so that flood insurance will be available." Zimbelman explained, “But right now we should be able to do what we`re doing in the flood plain and reconstruct as we are and hopefully we`ll get the valley built back up the way it was before."

Bob Miller ended his remarks by saying, “Bah Humbug!” to the proposal.

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