When Jim Hammes, the owner of Thatcher Mobile Home Park, realized his property was going to be flooded in 2008, nearly all of the park’s residents came together to build a levee.
Over the course of a week, several hundred volunteers constructed a 1,000-foot barrier at the park, 2254 S. Riverside Drive, using plastic, sand bags, and a borrowed bulldozer.
“It was a lot of work, but it was really rewarding to watch all the volunteers work and the people in the park all pull together,” Hammes said. “When it held, it was a pretty good feeling.”
His actions were not unique. David Baculis, the owner of Baculis’ Mobile Home Park, did the same thing to protect his property, 2128 S. Riverside Drive.
Though both barriers still stand today, Iowa City plans to soon tear them down to build a new levee to protect both mobile home parks.
The Iowa City City Council voted unanimously on Monday to authorize an application seeking I-JOBS II funding for the project, which officials hope will provide $2.1 million, said David Purdy, a flood-recovery specialist for the city. The I-JOBS II program requires local sources to match its funding, and that may come from the city in the form of a Community Development Block Grant, he said.
The new levee is expected to cost $3.8 million; it will sit along the west side of the Iowa River, between McCollister Boulevard and the CRANDIC Railroad tracks. It will protect both mobile home parks, as well as around 20 businesses in the Commercial Court area.
Though Monday night saw progress on the issue, the man-made levees that still stand at the two mobile park homes have been a point of contention between the owners and the city.
Businesses in the Commercial Court area removed their temporary levees after the 2008 flood. However, the structures on Baculis and Thatcher Mobile Home Parks have not been removed despite receiving several citations from the city, said Julie Tallman, Iowa City’s certified floodplain manager.
Though the levees worked for temporary use, she said, they don’t meet requirements to be permanent.
“While the sand and plastic worked in 2008, and thank goodness it did, it was not constructed to be a permanent solution,” Tallman said. “It wasn’t protecting anyone in June of 2009 nor was it protecting anyone in June of 2010.”
The city has been in the process of pursuing legal action to have the levees forcibly removed, Tallman said, but that slowed with news of the possible Community Development Block Grant.
Baculis said he refused to take down his dike because he felt his property was being properly protected by it.
And while Hammes said he would approve of the city building a new levee, he wouldn’t remove his before another was in place.
Though there has been some disagreements over the barriers, 29-year-old nursing student and resident of Thatcher Mobile Home Park Jessica Gutierrez said she is in favor of building a new levee.
Sitting in her car Monday evening, Gutierrez said recent high river levels have brought back memories of sandbagging from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. as the floodwaters hit two years ago.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, not again,’ ” she said, noting that a new levee is vital to protecting the park’s residents. “Everything they own, everything they have, everything they work for is here.”
The City Council will hold a public hearing on Aug. 17 to hear comments on the use of Community Development Block Grant funds.