CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – December Interim sessions for the West Virginia Legislature got underway on Sunday with a meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding.
Committee members were addressed by Melissa Roberts, Executive Director of the American Flood Coalition, who advised that additional federal funding remains more available for the mitigation of floods than ever before.
“Often $1 of state investment put up can bring down anywhere from $5 to $7 to $9 of federal investment,” Roberts said. “We’re also seeing that some states that have had a head start like Texas, and Florida and Louisiana, are really getting an outsized share. But this opportunity still exists.”
Members were informed by West Virginia Resiliency Officer, Bob Martin, the several projects are in the works to seize the grant opportunity, but that organizational bureaucracy hurdles facing his office hinders the grant application process.
“Currently, we can’t, partly because most of the federal dollars right now are going to other agencies,” Martin said. “There are grants out there for economic development and some of them have to do with resiliency and have to do with flood mitigation, have to do with storm water, and those are integrated into those programs.”
Martin additionally stated his belief of his office’s obligation to attain the funds for state projects, and advised he is working with multiple agencies, grant writers, and legal teams toward obtaining grants for federal funding.
Members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding voted to assist in seeking solutions to these challenges and recommended grant assistance programs at West Virginia University and Marshall University which are available to assist the Flood Resiliency Office.
The office hopes to have assembled the expertise and resources needed by 2024 to transition from an organizational phase to the execution of flood mitigation projects.