712 Digital Group - top

Sioux City center must repay some flood aid

News

November 18th, 2013 by Ric Hanson

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center must repay more than $34,000 in flood aid.  The Sioux City Journal says the center had hired temporary workers to remove exhibits and other items to higher ground as Missouri River floodwaters menaced Sioux City in late May 2011. The workers also helped build a berm to protect the center and its sister facility, the Betty Strong Encounter Center.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency later provided nearly $78,600 in flood aid to the private nonprofit cultural group. But an audit showed the center’s board didn’t actually approve hiring the workers and paying for use of their pickups and other equipment.

State and federal officials eventually ruled the labor-related expenses couldn’t be reimbursed, so the center has to pay back some of the money.