As the one-year anniversary of the May 29 storm approaches, the City of Levelland is continuing to wrap up loose ends with the damages sustained from the event.
Hockley County and Levelland Emergency Management Coordinator, Cole Kirkland presented the City of Levelland FEMA projects.
One of the bigger items still being worked through is the Levelland Fire Department (LFD) roof. Estimated to be a $500,000 project, Kirkland explained he was waiting for coverage approval from TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TML IRP). It would be a 7525 percent match once the City proves it is uninsured and would incur the cost directly.
City Manager James Fisher spoke to the Council providing an additional update on the topic.
The City received a letter from TML IRP stating the roof is not eligible and they would not be covering the roof. The reason cited was a 2022 hailstorm where TML IRP notified the City of the damages sustained and no repairs being made thereafter. Fisher informed the Council that he requested documentation from TML IRP where they notified the City in addition to requesting the latest report they had and asked if one portion of the roof was not repaired correctly does it disqualify the entire area.
In a previous meeting, financing options were discussed for projects such as the City’s wastewater treatment plant, the SCADA system, a new animal shelter and the possibility of financing the LFD roof.
With the new development between the City and TML IRP, the LFD roof has been pulled from the financing options as Fisher believes the project will take some time to be sorted out. Fisher noted that Kirkland did work with a roofing company to make some immediate repairs to the LFD roof to get by. With what rain has come through the area there has not been any leaks detected.
Mayor Breann Buxkemper asked if there was any paperwork regarding the 2022 hailstorm within the City files.
At the time of the meeting in early May, Fisher stated they had not found any paperwork yet. He also noted that it would have been nice if TML IRP would have put an asterisk noting the roof would not be covered when discussions were had rerates.
“The other thing is that we have been paying for premiums,” said Fisher. “There was a weird statement made from them [TML IRP] that said, ‘well we would cover your fire station if it caught on fire, but we would not cover the roof’ it’s kind of bizarre right now.”
Councilman Bill Powell asked if there were any dollar figures associated with the prior 2022 hailstorm from TML IRP. Fisher was not aware of any amount at the time and explained that he was in the process of working backwards to find any permitting documents and had reached out to the original contractor of the building.
“It’s going to be a long process, but we got notice and the tone of the letter was not very friendly,” said Fisher.
With plans to appeal the decision, the City will send another letter and TML IRP will take it under consideration. Additionally, Fisher has been working to get a roofing consultant. Along with the letter that will be sent is documentation from the consultant.
Voicing her frustration with TML IRP, Buxkemper asked if there were alternative options the City could move forward with.
City Attorney Slater Elza explained that there are very limited entities such as TML IRP for municipalities compared to school districts who have had several options. Additionally, Elza noted that cities are seeing a different philosophy from TML IRP when it comes to accepting and denying claims and all his clients he represents are with TML.
“I feel like my time on Council just showed more negative encounters with TML like a rubber stamp of denial,” stated Buxkemper.
Fisher stated the fire station roof is the big item denied however, TML IRP had been responsive with several other projects.
“We are going to work through this,” said Fisher. “I think by the end of the day we will get something.”
Councilman Michael Stueart asked if TML IRP informed Fisher of who received the documentation back in 2022.
“They identified the two folks they sent it to and it is aggravating that we did not do the responsive thing and take care of it,” stated Fisher. “As we all know, our state has been hammered over the last couple of years…it has just been one catastrophic event after another. They are going to get a little pickier and if we did not do our job of repairing something it’s easy for them to say we are not doing this.”
The second project discussed was debris removal. The project is currently under peer review as all of the necessary documentation has been submitted. The total cost of the project came out to $75,816 with a 75% match. The City would be looking at a reimbursement of $56,862.33. Kirkland added that the total amount of debris is roughly 40,000 cubic yards. Staging the project will include the LFD, Smyer Volunteer Fire Department and Hockley County to ensure fire breaks are in place.
The third project was the damaged city vehicles. The City was able to apply for the deductibles for all of the 48 vehicles that we submitted. The was a $12,000 project with the 75% match and the City would have $9,000 returned. The fourth project is in regard to the communication tower. Kirkland explained the initial repair cost is a two-track system which includes repairs due to the storm and codes and standards upgrades.
This includes the lighting system that needs to be repaired and any of the guyed wires that need to be replaced. Kirkland stated the entire invoice was approved for the amount of $99,900 with a 75% match for $74,925.
It was noted that there is still a mitigation project up to the total amount of the repair cost. That could potentially be another $99,900.
Buxkemper asked how that decision would be made. Kirkland explained that the process is a specialized track for somebody who understands tower service.
It would go under CRC review which is the overarching regulatory group that does FEMA applications; then it will go under a peer review for final review and then that would be approved.
Asked about the length of time it would take Kirkland felt that the process would not take long.
“Since the project is already in motion…we just have to validate that the tower that we’re building mitigates hazards that the other one sustained.
“I think the mitigation project is 80-20 match so that would be $79,920 which would bring the potential total for FEMA reimbursement for the tower project to $154,845.”
Going back through the tower project, there were some ARPA funds that were associated with that project. Kirkland added that what the City applied for with FEMA is directly for the structure of the tower.
“We learned they had to exclude the equipment on the tower and the building at the base,” explained Kirkland. “Originally, we had quoted for the total project that was presented a $40,000 concrete building for where the communication equipment would be housed.”
With the intention of reducing budgets and cost savings, another option that was discussed heavily with the vendor was using shipping containers.
“They can pour a slab, bolt them down and then it’s all selfcontained and insulated which is about fourth of the cost of the concrete building but just as resilient,” said Kirkland. “They are very resilient, safe and secure. We can get those in Lubbock rather than having to order those from wherever we can find them. It may be an option that would be about a $10,000 option versus the $40,000 to $50,000 option of hauling in a concrete building.”
The fifth project dealt with the pump station and wastewater treatment impact. Kirkland stated the insurance covered all of the damages other than the $1,000 deductible for the building. As a result, the project was zeroed out because the insurance covered it.
The sixth project was the water department building. The project included the contents, structure of the roof and interior for a total of $218,781.18. The insurance covered $142,517.90 leaving an uninsured difference of $76,263. With the FEMA 75-25 match, the City will be looking at a $57,197.46 return.
The seventh project was the emergency protective measures which included any of the expenditures that the City had initially in the response time. This included overtime for public safety, public works and regular staff. Kirkland stated all of those items had been already submitted and approved for a total of $21,090. The 75% match returns $15,817.
The final project included the donated resources such as volunteer tracking hours for the debris project. Kirkland explained that it will cover all of the City’s in-kind match that they had for all of their projects. That total is estimated to be about $40,005.96. Kirkland also noted that the funds will begin to roll in relatively soon now that the necessary documents have been submitted.
Moving into the individual assistance update, Kirkland stated his original presentation in August of last year FEMA has assisted around $8 million. Currently, FEMA has put back roughly $14 million on the commercial and individual side. This includes housing repairs, housing assistance, rentals and then house repair.
Out of 1,577 applications, 1,549 were validated.
“For long term recovery, our local group Love Levelland stepped up as our fiscal agent for disaster response,” said Kirkland. “They have done a tremendous job. They did not sign up for a long term recovery role, but they were so willing to take it after we started.”
Taking the fiscal agent role for donated funds, they received $55,500 from locals to aid on the local side. Currently they have $16,000 left as they were waiting towards the anniversary to see what other needs there were. They received 62 applications, 34 were approved and 28 were denied. Ninety-five percent of the denials there were no responses from the people that applied as they needed documentation from FEMA and never provided it.
“It goes under the denied category, not necessarily that they were not willing to help them, they just didn’t have any response,” explained Kirkland.
Not included in the $55,000 was $14,000 from the Hockley County Endowment. Kirkland added they referred seven of the neediest applications from the Long Term Recovery Committee and five of those were accepted. In turn, the $14,000 was split amongst those five households. Each household received approximately $2,800 from the Hockley County Endowment.
Following the report, Fisher thanked Kirkland for his hard work.