An Altoona resident on Wednesday appealed to City Council to support his effort to yank Toytown back off the recently revised Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain maps.
Council was sympathetic, but noncommittal.
The recent revisions - refinements resulting from digitizing the maps - will require many property owners in the neighborhood just south of channelized Mill Run along 31st Street to buy expensive and unnecessary flood insurance, said David Wolfslagle, who owns property in the neighborhood.
He will need to pay $1,200, he said.
That money will be wasted, because it has never flooded there, as far as he knows, and never will, he said.
The old stone-sided channels were built to prevent it, and they provide plenty of room for the water to flow through, he said.
He's asking the city for help, because the city would have more clout with FEMA than a collection of individuals, he said.
City officials should follow the example of Tyrone, whose officials support residents there who are in the same boat, he said.
One official in that borough has interceded with federal lawmakers on behalf of those residents, said Altoona solicitor Larry Clapper, who is also the solicitor for Tyrone.
But borough council has not taken any formal action in support of those residents who want the flood plain changes there rolled back, Clapper said.
Property owners who object to the changes can "appeal to amend," Public Works Director Dave Diedrich told Wolfslagle.
But that would involve "significant effort," including surveys, he conceded.
"It's such a large area [that] the city ought to be involved," Wolfslagle said.
Send the city a copy of the Tyrone letter to lawmakers, suggested Councilman Bruce Kelley.
"We'll keep in contact," said Mayor Bill Schirf.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
