If your home was damaged during the 2015 floods and you spent your own money to fix it up, dig out your receipts.
At Tuesday night’s San Marcos City Council meeting, the council heard — for the first time — that Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funds the city received to help with flood recovery could be used to reimburse qualifying residents for expenditures related to rebuilding or repairing homes. By the end of the meeting, City Manager Bert Lumbreras had proposed the creation of a reimbursement program and asked the council for time to “come up with an approach to come up with some funding” for the program.
The discussion emerged during a public hearing on a substantial amendment to the allocation of some of the nearly $34 million in CDBG-DR funds. The proposed reallocation would move funds between infrastructure projects. City staff said that the projects to help mitigate future flooding come at an estimated cost of almost $42 million — almost twice the estimated costs when the projects were still in the feasibility stage. The projects altogether are expected to run $19 million over budget.
