At the Oct. 22 meeting of the Osceola City Council, council approved 5-0 an authorization to city staff to make a full application for planning funds for a capability and capacity building (CCB) grant, which would be used in designing a tornado safe room.
The topic of a safe room was brought up at the July 16 city council meeting, during an annual SICOG (Southern Iowa Council of Governments) update by SICOG senior planner Jeremy Rounds. When Rounds asked if there were any other projects that he should be thinking about, Osceola mayor Thomas Kedley and Osceola city administrator Ty Wheeler mentioned a safe room.
FEMA defines a safe room as,
“...a room or structure specifically designed and constructed to resist wind pressures and wind-borne debris impacts during an extreme-wind event, like tornadoes and hurricanes, for the purpose of providing life-safety protection.”
Clarke County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan lists various goals related to abating the risk of various natural disasters, including construction of a public safe room in or near “existing and future community assets and parks.”
Rounds stated that there was likely money available for such a project, due to the tornadoes and severe weather that had affected the state. Rounds said a safe room that could be a multi-use structure would likely be the best use for such a space, and that a notice of intent to make application for such dollars would be sent out at a later date. The application would then require several pieces of pertinent information, including the size of a structure and the number of population it would serve.
At the Oct. 22 meeting, Wheeler provided the council with an update on the safe room project. He said the city had received a notice of intent, and had replied that there was interest in applying for a grant that would fund a safe room project. By utilizing the Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city was able to identify an area of town that was underserved by way of home construction, and included that information in the notice of intent.
At a meeting of the Iowa Homeland Security, it was learned that the type of grants for safe room projects are highly competitive, and more competitive applications would have at about 30% of their design specs done by application time. As it is a federal grant, design work reimbursement would only be applicable if the project went through a federal consultant selection process, which takes time to do. Such an application for the safe room project would be due in February, and Wheeler said it would be tough to react in a timely fashion with a good grant application.
During the same meeting, however, the CCB Grant was discussed. A CCB Grant would fund preliminary design work on a safe room project. In another meeting, it was said that the design consultants had already been preselected. If awarded a grant, Osceola would work with one of those consultants through the planning project up to about 30%. Then when the project grant became open, the design work would be rolled into that application, making it more competitive than others.
“We went ahead and issued another notice of intent to make application for this Capability and Capacity Grant,” said Wheeler. “Last Friday…we received an email inviting us to make full application for those dollars.”
The estimated design cost would be about $50,000, with a 75% federal share, 10% state and 15% local cost-share. Wheeler said that if the funding formula remained the same as last year, the city may qualify for a full 100%. Grant dollars would be awarded in spring 2025, but no costs would be incurred until the start of the following federal fiscal year, which begins October 2025.
Various other pieces of work would have to be completed for the project in the future, including environmental and historical studies, various federal disclosures, match resolution if one is had, minority impact form, code compliance, cost-benefit analysis and so forth.
Potential area, size, multi-use
An area identified as lacking in storm shelters is The Meadows, Vesta Village, Friendly Acres of Osceola Mobile Home Community, and homes on Warren Court; all are located on the west side of Osceola, just north of Highway 34 and just east of Interstate 35. Many of the homes do not have basements, and are unlikely to have any sort of safe room.
Going off of the Hazard Mitigation Plan to utilize a city-owned park or property, the nearest such place is the Warren Family Park, located within roughly half a mile of the properties.
“The idea was…construct some safe room facility at Warren Family Park, thus serving the needs of the folks out in this area,” said Wheeler.
Because a safe room does not have to be a stand-alone building, it could be utilized for a different purpose when not being used for safety.
Floor space required would be approximately five-square feet per person, plus additional space for ADA compliance, making it comparable to the size of a standalone basketball gym. Restrooms also have to be included in safe space areas.
The Creston Middle School gym is one example of a multi-purpose safe room, which is used as a full-size basketball court with bleacher seating. For Osceola, Wheeler said they would likely apply for a building size in the 93x93-feet range when making application.
“The primary purpose of this is a safe room,” said Wheeler. “The subordinate use is whatever the applicant can program into it….[a] gym is just the bonus.”
Thoughts
Kedley asked if parking would be required, or if residents would walk. Wheeler answered that it would be up to the city and council, but a safe room could serve as a redesign of the park space to allow for some parking to be put in. Councilman Tom Bahls expressed support for the project, calling it a “no-brainer” to support the local cost match for design.
No money has been spent or accepted on the project. Wheeler cautioned council that once they get into the building grant process, they could find the space or building specs won’t work - it could need to be bigger or smaller, or not have a good secondary use. However, Wheeler reiterated that a need for something like this had been identified in that area of town.
When asked how long it would take for the project to come to fruition, Wheeler answered that if they were awarded planning dollars in February 2025, they would make application for construction dollars in 2026, with those funds not available for expenditure until October 2026, the beginning of the federal fiscal year 2027. Therefore, 2027 would be the earliest to see the building begin to take shape.
Councilman Dr. George Fotiadis made the motion to authorize staff to move forward with the application, and the motion was seconded by councilwoman Sonya Hicks.