BISMARCK - Some 10 years after North Dakota's blizzard-plagued winter of 1996-97 and the subsequent flood disaster in the Red River Valley, state agencies are still making payments for their share of repairs and recovery.
According to the University of North Dakota's budget director, that is due in part to the whims of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Updates on disaster payments came to the Legislature in its first week, when several agencies applied for extra money to get through the2005-07 biennium, a process known as a deficiency appropriation. The biennium ends June 30.
UND is seeking $2.1 million. Budget Director Alice Brekke told the Senate Appropriations Committee that while the campus completed all of its flood-related projects in the 2003-05 state budget period, it has spent an unexpected amount of money in the2005-07 period, as FEMA refused to pay some costs.
During this budget period, FEMA disallowed $1.5 million worth of repair costs on the campus steam line that UND expected the feds to cover. With interest and litigation costs, it totals an unexpected $2.1 million that UND must pay this biennium.
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Brekke told legislators that UND rebuilt the high-pressure, high-volume steam line to current standards to ensure employee safety and minimize risk of liability. That's more expensive than standards used when the original system was installed 50 years before.
Even though UND assumed modern standards to be the minimum requirement, FEMA considered the changes to be ineligible improvements, Brekke said.
"I wish I could tell you this is the last bill we have," she said. But it probably won't be because UND is still in an appeal process with FEMA on an additional $4.2 million that FEMA refuses to cover. During the appeals process, FEMA hasn't been meeting its own regulations that require it to respond to UND's appeals within 90 days, Brekke said.
She said sometimes decisions local officials made during the disaster have been second-guessed by FEMA "six or seven years down the road."
North Dakota's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Dave Sprynczynatyk, told the Senate Appropriations Committee the state Department of Emergency Services needs a $4.3 million deficiency appropriation to pay on its line of credit at the Bank of North Dakota this biennium for state share of disaster recovery costs. Some of the money represents costs still outstanding from the 1996-97 winter and the resulting flood that devastated Grand Forks, he said.
Committee Chairman Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, asked if the state wasn't just about done paying for the flood damages.
No, Sprynczynatyk said.
"We're thinking it might take another six or seven years," Sprynczynatyk said, or into the 2013-15 biennium. "It was a huge event."
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North Dakota State University is seeking a deficiency appropriation of $289,000 from the 2007 Legislature to cover costs remaining from the June 2000 rainstorm deluge in Fargo. John Adams, vice president of business and finance, told the senators that most of that is interest to the Bank of North Dakota resulting from the same kind of FEMA delays UND has experienced.
"We hope next biennium, we will see the close out on this (disaster)," he said, but noted the involvement of FEMA makes that unknown.
The Senate Appropriations Committee took no immediate action on the requests. They are in Senate Bill 2023.
Readers can reach Forum Communications reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830 or forumcap@btinet.net
