12-October-2011
On a recommendation from David Gogol of B&D Consulting, government representatives from the Ohio cities Findlay and Ottawa are likely to visit the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington by the end of the year to emphasize the region's flood control needs, Findlay's
TheCourier.com reported in its article, "Consultants Recommend Visit to Army Corps Headquarters."
The two cities retained B&D Consulting to lobby at the federal level and guide regional officials on how to proceed in the wake of the Blanchard River flooding in northwest Ohio. Regional officials have previously traveled to the corps' Buffalo, N.Y., district offices and visited legislators on Capitol Hill, but the trip to the Army Corps' headquarters will be a first.
"We've been really successful at the lower level. The branch offices all like us," Gogol told TheCourier.com. "But headquarters has never met us. We don't want to be just dependent on a good relationship with Buffalo."
Corps projects traditionally have been funded by earmarks, so the congressional ban on earmarks presents a major roadblock to regional flood control efforts, according to Gogol. The flood control study for the Blanchard River watershed has been funded through 2012, but the region will have to find a way around the earmark ban to capture federal funding for project design and construction.
Gogol said this project marks "uncharted territory" because no one has yet determined how to fund projects like this one during an earmark ban. "We face this unknown 2012 period. We need to make sure we've got everyone's attention" to have the best shot at federal funding, he said.
Even if the region decides to move forward without federal funding after the corps releases project recommendations, Gogol said the corps "believes they can't allow us to spend our money without their permission."
According to Gogol, federal funding is possible if the region makes it on the project list covered by the next Water Resources Development Act. Expected to be reauthorized in 2012, the federal law would cover projects approved in 2009, but Gogol thinks some of those projects will be dropped due to lack of local funding matches, TheCourier.com reported. B&D Consulting will then research projects remaining on the list to "get a sense of who our competition is" for federal dollars, Gogol said.
Because bureaucracies tend to have glacier-like speed, Gogol says federal and state legislators should be urged to prod agencies about maintaining momentum on flood control efforts.
The Blanchard River watershed project's advantage in this process is that it has significant allies in Congress. House Speaker John Boehner is from Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, who will likely be Hancock County's next congressional representative, knows all about the region's flooding problems, Gogol said.
"We haven't found anyone in Ohio who doesn't understand our problem and that it needs to get fixed," Gogol told TheCourier.com.