Six homes in the city of Arnold’s flood plain recently were torn down.
Three homes on Boeing Drive, a home on Convair Drive, a home on Kathryn Lane and a home on Spruce Court were demolished between Aug. 18 and Aug. 28. It cost $881,836 to purchase and demolish the homes, Arnold Community Development Director David Bookless said.
Arnold received a $661,377 grant from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help pay for the project. Bookless said FEMA’s grant covered 75 percent of the total cost, and the city paid the remaining $220,459, or 25 percent, of the project.
“This is part of our continuing efforts to remove homes from the flood plain that are threatened by flooding,” City Administrator Bryan Richison said. “The city has had a great partnership with FEMA and SEMA (the state Emergency Management Agency), and we have been very successful over the years to get money to do these buyouts.”
On Aug. 6, City Council members voted unanimously to award a $60,475 contract to Tubbs and Son Construction of Lonedell to handle the demolition. The council hired Tubbs and Son over TA Contracting of St. Louis, which submitted a slightly lower bid of $60,044.80, the lowest of five bids submitted for the project.
City officials recommended hiring Tubbs and Son because TA Contracting did not include references in its bid documents. Also, Tubbs and Son has performed work for the city in the past, according to city documents.
Bookless and Richison said the city wanted to purchase three more homes in the flood plain – one on Piper Drive, one on Oak Court and one on Mable Drive – but Arnold ran out of grant money. They said Arnold will continue to pursue grant opportunities to purchase and demolish those three homes.
“We will keep applying for those three, and potentially others,” Richison said. “I don’t know if we have any others identified at the moment, but that could always change.”