RVCC July 10, 2008 Spring Green Visit by Gov. Doyle and FEMA

Wisconsin State Sen. Dale Schultz talks to residents at the Spring Green Town Hall before the Governor arrived from the Prairie Subdivision photo op.

Gov. Doyle answered questions from some of the 50 residents attending the meeting. State Assembly Member Steve Hilgenberg is on the left. Dolph Diemont of FEMA is in the dark blue shirt on right. Sen. Schultz is on the right.

Residents were told that FEMA cannot inspect homes that still have water in them because they would not be able to complete their checklists. Residents were concerned because the water has not receded in the month since the flood. The 1993 waters took more than 3 months to recede. With winter coming, if the water freezes homes will be totally destroyed as foundations will break up.

Another resident asked why officials have not deployed more pumps. Why has a ditch not been dug and lift stations installed to pump the standing waters to the river? Why wasn't something done since the 1993 flood to handle this flood?

Another local farmer said his farm was under two feet of water. He remembered years ago when Big Hollow Road was a natural drainage ditch to the Wisconsin River but has been filled in since then.

Officials did not have many answers. FEMA stated that the New Orleans flood waters from Hurricane Katrina were pumped out in much less time than the month that Spring Green has been flooded. With the water table so high, every inch of rain makes the situation worse.

The Governor thought that the FEMA regulations should be reviewed to see if normal inspections are still necessary even if homes have been under water for months and obviously are total losses.

RVCC's Mike Birr was in attendance (sitting on left). FLOW's Timm Zumm is sitting next to Don Greenwood on the right by the wall.

Here is the site where the public officials started their tour. The helicopter is gone along with the politicians, the US Army generals, the Madison media, and the police cars. The water is still here. The questions of residents are still unanswered.

RVCC's Mike Birr and others have presented written questions to Spring Green Town Board and Planning Commission members, but they still have not provided any answers. Now the town is being sued by several residents and Board members have said they cannot answer any questions.

This is not the first flood in Spring Green. It will not be the last flood in Spring Green. Spring Green needs a well thought out, comprehensive, long term solution to the flooding problems. The discussion should include past decisions. The residents deserve a transparent, cooperative process from local elected officials to solve these problems. Hopefully residents' questions will be answered in less time than it takes for the waters to disappear. If elected officials continue to stick their heads in the sand, they will only get mold in their ears.