SUBJECT
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Approve Amendment #4 for a time extension for 4337-4-PAO with Florida Department of Emergency Management (FDEM) to complete work assignments related to watershed management and planning in Polk County. (no fiscal impact)
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DESCRIPTION
Watershed Master Plans (WMPs), as conceived by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) program, provide an outline for communities to reduce local flood risk. According to the CRS Coordinator's Manual 2021 Addendum (FEMA, 2021), "the objective of watershed master planning is to provide communities within a watershed with a tool they can use to make decisions that will reduce flooding from development on a watershed-wide basis." A successful WMP will also provide identify opportunities for water quality improvement within the watershed. To fund these WMPs the County sought funding from FDEM to conduct a County-wide WMP.
Polk is the fourth largest County in Florida and has over 70 HUC 12s, so to tackle a County-wide watershed planning effort, three grant agreements have been approved to cover Polk County as three planning areas: Kissimmee River Section, Peace River Section, Tampa Bay Section.
The grant agreements provided challenging deadlines upon execution, and due to delays with getting fully executed contracts and grant agreements, the County has requested from FDEM time extensions for the three grants. FDEM has approved these requests, and we seek County approval to execute the extension and continue with the project. The original deadline for the grant agreement was September 30, 2023, Amendment #1 extended the deadline to December 31, 2023, Amendment #2 extended project deadline to September 30, 2024 and Amendment #3 extended project deadline to December 31, 2024 and Amendment #4 will extend until May 31, 2025.
The project has been approved by the Stormwater Technical Advisory Committee (STAC).
RECOMMENDATION
Approve time extension for 4337-4- PAO with Florida Department of ...
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