Mayor
Elect Ron Corbett's Listening Session with Flood Victims
IBEW
Building, Cedar Rapids, December 3, 2009
The
following notes are taken from Tweets I sent out during the meeting. I have rearranged them so that they are in
order from first to last and corrected some of my spelling errors.
The only elected
officials that I see in attendance are Chuck Wieneke, Monica Vernon, Don Karr
and Rob Hogg. Greg Eyerly is also here.
Ron Corbett: A lot of people are broke and have lost
hope. You can count on me. I probably won't get all of the problems
solved but I will try. My number one job
is to help people out. I need to know what the issues are. I am going to try to solve every problem.
·
Peter
Teahen begins addressing the group.
·
PT:
Most people are in the disillusions period.
Crowd mostly agrees.
·
Mike:
Bought a house 3 days before the flood on H Avenue. Bring back trash pickup, we are not
done. (Trash from rebuilding needs to be
picked up).
·
Janice
and Virgil - Own rental property - Received no money from houses sold on
contract. They got no money from FEMA,
the homeowner got the money. They
question the Duplication of Benefits regarding their properties under contract.
·
Audience
member questions Buyouts being pushed to October 2010.
·
Question
of Demolition costs to be deducted from the costs of Buyouts.
·
PT:
Reminds the group that we are making a list for Corbett to begin to work with.
·
Lady:
The City has not done anything to protect us at Cottage Grove Parkway.
·
Linda
Seger: Denied permit in the beginning, six months into building the City drew
the construction zone. This line was not
drawn by the Corp of Engineers.
·
LOST
Money is being discussed. Crowd reacts
loudly.
·
Craig
Seeley is preaching on moral behavior - rebuilding city entities in flooded
areas
·
David
- 4 houses are on my block, are we just supposed to click our heels together
and hope it all works out? Are we going
to be proactive?
·
Diane
- Signed up for buyout and then was later told I was not in the buyout
areas. $59k in debt, feel like a square
peg in a round hole. On her 4th case
worker. Sold my house short, don't even
have a sofa, don't want one, just want to stay dry. I sold my house for less than $14k.
·
(It
appears to me that some people are now wanting answers instead of just letting
Ron know information. Who can blame
them?)
·
Again,
why the time frame change on the buyouts?
Still having to pay for insurance, etc
What laws are there for victimizing us victims?
·
Richard
- Restored my home but I will lose big time if I am bought out. It will be a travesty.
·
Michael
Richards - What part of emergency do we not get? It took six months for the first contractor
to get paid. There is no streamlined
process at all.
·
Dan
- We need to have local contractors and advocates who have a vested interest in
our local community, not those from Minneapolis. I can't afford an attorney to check out all
of the city paperwork!
·
Dan
- Home based businesses have been excluded from help. It doesn't matter that we have proof that we
are a true business.
·
Lady
- I am sick and tired of hearing about the US Cellular Building! We are not getting any straight answers from
the City! We are ready for you to LEAD
Mr. Corbett!
·
Gentleman:
How many houses have been razed? Who will be responsible for keeping up those
lots? Will the city continue to pay $75
per lot to be mowed?
·
Sandy - I received only $1100 from
FEMA. At the time we could not know what
the unforeseen problems were going to be from the flood. I now have cracks in the walls and in my foundation
from the flood and need help in repairing those, I also have plumbing problems.
·
Theresa Davis - We had a huge
problem in finding affordable housing, especially since we own a pet. She is concerned about bankruptcy. She was offered $15k for her $75k house, she
declined the offer.
·
PT: I am sure that RC is seeing a
lot of people are having similar issues.
·
Gentleman: We need laws to protect
deposits for renters!
·
Gentleman: I rebuilt but I am now in
limbo because of the City drawn construction zone.
·
Lady: I have severe OCD and Agoraphobia,
I was drug to this meeting by a friend because they want me to tell my
story. I was denied the right to enter
my home after the flood, I was unable to save anything at all, I did not even
get the dignity to be told when my house was being torn down. It has destroyed my life. I am on disability and can no longer work.
·
Mike - I am here representing my
parents. Every obstacle the city has has
been thrown in my path. My parents still
have no heat in their home! These people
that control this city should be held accountable as criminals!
·
Tom Potts - The City doesn't allow
people to help one another out, neighbor helping neighbor is a foreign
concept. The police were sent to keep
one woman's son from rebuilding his own mother's house because he was an out of
town contractor. His own mother's house!
·
Harold - I rented a house and I feel
totally forgotten and alone.
·
Todd- Residential landlord - told
buyouts were postponed because they only have 9 employees. He looked in the phone book and found plenty
of real estate agents, attorneys and everyone else needed to help get the work
done.
·
Leonard - Still angry about some
things, I need a building permit!!! I
have two mortgages, Big business always
seem to come out ok, what about us?
·
Todd - Is Justin Shields here? Who is he?
They need to get off of their seats and help us!
·
Ray - There is a lot of run around
that goes on. Jumpstart is a farce. Steam plant?
What about us? Wiring that was
under water will still work!!!
·
Dorothy - I am 84 years old and I
have had to get a 30 year mortgage. I
need to get paid what my house was worth so I can pay off the loan. I am a former bookkeeper and I know how to
take care of receipts. I was treated
rudely by the Jumpstart people. I can
get no answers!
·
PT: Financial security seems to be a
major concern.
·
Landlord - Jumpstart only paid half
of the first bill I submitted. They told
me I had to wait until the next check to get the rest of the money. They even wanted to put a mechanics lien on a
sub-floor! On a sub-floor!
·
PT: The challenge is to keep the
pressure on the council and keep the channels open.
·
Ron Corbett gives out his cell phone
number and his email address.
·
Special thanks are given to Lisa
Kuzela for her assistance in putting this together.
·
The meeting is adjourned
