Public input wanted: How to best spend $23.5 million on flood recovery projects

Richland County officials will hold a series of meetings to ask residents one big question: What flood recovery projects should take priority with $23.5 million in federal grant money?

In late February, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $23.5 million would be allocated to Richland County for flood recovery projects through its Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery Program (CDBG-DR). The purpose of this grant money is to help presidentially declared disaster areas recover by funding a broad range of recovery activities related to housing, infrastructure and economic development that are not covered by other sources, such as flood insurance or FEMA hazard mitigation funding.

In mid-June, HUD published its federal register for the CDBG-DR funding to Richland County, which includes the provisions flood recovery projects must meet in order to be funded through the CDBG-DR grant.

To learn more about the CDBG-DR grant and to ensure Richland County residents have a voice in flood recovery efforts, a series of 10 Community Flood Recovery Meetings will be held across the County, where officials will seek public opinion and input.

“The community outreach meetings will provide our residents the opportunity to meet with key recovery personnel and provide their input and recommendations regarding the direction for Richland County in the Long Term Recovery Process,” said Richland County Recovery Chief Michael King. “I encourage every Richland County resident to get involved and let their voices be heard.”

The Community Flood Recovery Meetings will be held as follows:

• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. June 29, Trenholm Park, 3900 Covenant Road, Columbia
• 6 p.m.-8 p.m. June 29, Parklane Road Adult Activity Center, 7494 Parklane Road, Columbia
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. June 30, North Springs Park, 1320 Clemson Road, Columbia
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. June 30, St. Andrews Park, 920 Beatty Road, Columbia
• 7 p.m.- 9 p.m. July 12, Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. Substation, 2615 Lower Richland Blvd., Columbia
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. July 12, Crane Creek Community Center, 7405 Fairfield Road, Columbia
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. July 13, Eastover Park, 1031 Main St., Eastover
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. July 13, Ballentine Community Center, 1009 Bickley Road, Irmo
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. July 14, Richland County Administration Building, 2020 Hampton St., Columbia
• 7 p.m.-9 p.m. July 14, Gadsden Park Community Center, 1668 S Goodwin Circle, Gadsden

County officials will use public input gathered from these meetings to compose its required Action Plan for Flood Recovery, which will be submitted to HUD and detail the specific flood recovery activities sought to be covered by the $23.5 million grant.

Residents can stay abreast of flood recovery information by visiting www.rcgov.us/floodrecovery. The site includes the CDBG-DR federal register, Richland County’s Intermediate Recovery Implementation Plan, flood-related County Council actions, a compilation of relevant news releases and more.

For flood recovery questions, residents can call the United Way’s 2-1-1 information and referral hotline or email [email protected].