Changes to FEMA Silver Lake floodplain map ordinance

By Gail Peckler-Dziki, Correspondent

Some Silver Lake residents will receive a notice from mortgage holders that the floodplain status of their property has changed.

The Silver Lake Village Board unanimously voted to have village clerk Terry Faber start work on a new FEMA floodplain map ordinance at the regular board meeting held on Feb. 15.

Faber will work from the model floodplain ordinance sent by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The village has until June 19 of this year to pass a new ordinance. This allows Silver Lake residents to remain eligible for flood insurance.

Silver Lake Trustee Patrick Dunn asked if the ordinance was available in a Word document, so that it would be easy to insert and change information that would be pertinent to Silver Lake. Village engineer Jeff Seitz from Crispell-Snyder, who was on hand to explain the issue, said that it was.

According Seitz, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been updating floodplain maps in Wisconsin.

“This process occurs periodically,” he explained. “The maps have been digitized. When that was done, not all the contours stayed the same, so there are some properties that weren’t in the floodplain or floodway that are now so designated.”

Seitz also suggested that the board not have the entire village surveyed to make map corrections. “The village of Mount Pleasant just did that. IT cost $200,000.”

Individual landowners would pay a one-time fee to have their own property surveyed. That fee would be between $800 and $1,500. If that weren’t done, then the landowner would pay about $1,000 additional for flood insurance annually.

Seitz suggested that landowners who don’t have a mortgage stop in to the village hall to check the new map, to see if the floodplain status of their land has changed.

 

SLFS awarded a grant for equipment

Silver Lake Trustee Mike Decker announced that the Silver Lake fire department was awarded at grant for $41,8000, to be pay for a cascade system.  The village is responsible to contribute five percent, or $2,200 for the purchase of this system, which is a safe way to fill the air bottles required when firefighters enter burning structures.

Silver Lake Fire Chief Bill brown received a short note from U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, announcing the grant award. The department had asked for a larger grant that would have included a ventilation system for the fire department building, but the department received only the grant for the cascade system.

Trustee Mike Decker, chair of the emergency government committee, explained that the cascade system would replace the way the department now fills air bottles.

“We have a device that allows us to fill the bottles manually,” he said. “We attach a hose to the bottle then turn a valve to allow the air in. The big problem is that if you fill too fast, the bottle can become very hot and explode. That makes the process dangerous. Even if you fill the bottles slowly, they still become hot.”

The cascade system allows the bottles to be filled much more quickly and safely. Decker suggested that the $2,200 be taken from the fire department budget. The board agreed.

 

 


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