County-wide flood control zone district is topic of public outreach meetings

DAYTON-At the Fairgrounds Pavilion last week, Columbia County Engineer Charles Eaton and Kirk Holmes, an engineer with consulting firm PERFEET, spoke about the intention of the Board of Columbia County Commissioners to form a county-wide flood control zone district (FCZD). The City of Dayton and the Town of Starbuck have passed resolutions in support of the BOCC's intention.

"It's always fun to go back in time," Holmes said about the 1996 Touchet River and Patit Creek floods.

"In 1996 there was 30 million dollars in damage in Columbia County, and twenty-two bridges were damaged, or lost. Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in our country," he said.

Holmes said flood frequency and intensity seem to be increasing and the costs of normal maintenance and recovery from them are going up.

"There are two things we like to think about – immediate risk and adjacent risk. Flooding impacts all layers of county funds," he said.

Holmes said when public infrastructure is damaged the costs are borne by all citizens in the county.

"It all comes out of the same budget," he explained.

Big reserves are usually tied up in projects, and county road funds are restricted by state law as to how they can be used, Holmes said.

"There is no flexibility to work outside the right-of-way with county funds. You can get out there a little ways but ultimately you end up with some audit things at the end of the year, that you want to be respectful of, and county road funds are generally reserved for programs and projects years in advance," he said.

Holmes said there are limited sources of other types of funds.

"There are some, but they require matching funds that the FCZD can provide," Holmes said.

He said that, in Yakima County, every dollar for their FCZD is leveraged through an assessment at a rate of 30 cents per assessed $1,000 of property value.

"They apply for grants. They partner with other agencies to do flood risk reduction on their levees, gates and check valves. They do heavy maintenance on their levees. They also partner with habitat people in strategic places to make sure that everything is well balanced in the flood plain," he said.

Holmes pointed out the importance of partnering with other agencies such as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the conservation districts and the Salmon Recovery Board in order to accomplish multi-jurisdictional objectives.

"The citizens really need to be involved in this whole thing so they can guide the direction of the District as it starts to form," he said.

The Board of County Commissioners will act as the Board of Supervisors, the county engineer will act as the administrator, and an advisory committee will be in charge of the FCZD, if it is formed.

"If you are interested in this, that's a great way to get involved," Holmes said. "I found it very helpful to have both supporters and detractors. That way you can find a place in the middle where everybody can meet," he said.

He said the county would like to set aside $100,000, annually, which will be done through a tax assessment.

Eaton said while that amount is not a large sum of money, establishing a dedicated fund will provide the ability to leverage additional grant funds.

"Almost every grant fund, nowadays, requires some additional match. So that's the beauty about having some seed money, Eaton said. "You can leverage leverages. So if I can use $100,000 to get Grant A for another $100,000, then I can use $200,000 to leverage against Grant B, to get more funds. So you can compound the leveraging and that's how you get to the big dollar amounts, for a county-wide project."

Eaton said once the District is formed, a broad discussion will take place about the most pressing issues and those can be factored into a 6-year Plan, after which funding efforts can be made.

He said the initial assessment will be used for planning efforts by county staff, and for required yearly maintenance.

"It's really important that we have plans on how to mitigate during a flood event, before a flood, event, and after a flood event," Eaton said. "Right now we don't have anything."

It is not known at this time exactly how county taxpayers will be affected.

County Assessor Chris Mills explained that, in order to reach the one hundred thousand dollar amount, taxpayers would need to pay eleven cents on $1,000 of taxable property value, which translates to twenty-two dollars, annually, for a home valued at two hundred thousand dollars.

However, if all the general funds added together exceed the statutory $5.90 limit, the FCZD will be the first to get its levy cut. Only certain levies are subject to this limit and the FCZD is one of those, Mills said.

Mills said there is currently only a 3-cent capability available for collection.

"This means that they would only be able to charge 3 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. Anything above that is uncollectable," she said.

Mills said collecting at 3 cents per 1,000 of assessed value would yield around $28,150.00, annually, falling short of the targeted goal.

Mills said she has proposed creating a Special Benefit Assessment District, similar to the Hearn or West End Ditch type of assessments.

"They would have to establish the boundaries of those properties that would get a direct benefit from the assessment . . . They would also then have to establish a rate of assessment for that benefit, be it a per-acre charge, or per-property amount," Mills said.

Other public hearings are taking place this month, and the BOCC will hold a final public hearing on June 17.

If adopted by the BOCC, a resolution will go before voters for approval in the November, 2019 general election.