(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa county is still struggling to get federal dollars to make repairs after flooding in 2018 and ’19. FEMA initially offered four-and-a-half million dollars to restore the Linn Grove Dam and a nearby park in Buena Vista County. The agency later offered seven-and-a-half million, then pulled all funding, though it was restored through arbitration. County conservation director Greg Johnson says the latest offer still isn’t enough money to repair the dam and popular fishing spot. “We as a community just want to move forward and make the repairs that are needed to protect the property into the future,” Johnson says.

“We’re sitting here six, seven years later, and it would be really nice to get this project completed.” In 2022, it was estimated the project would cost more than 12-million dollars, while Johnson says it’s likely higher today. At one point, FEMA claimed the project wasn’t eligible for any funding, but Johnson says both sides went through arbitration with the Civilian Board of Public Appeals. “We had the CBPA ruling deeming the dam as an eligible project a year ago, the expectations that it would be scoped to today’s, 2025 costs, and that’s not what had happened,” he says.

County officials have until April 1st to appeal FEMA’s most recent offer, and Johnson says that -will- likely happen.