Property buyout meeting planned
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 22, 2018 3:05 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
David Harris of RMS Harris Associates suggests to Wayne County commissioners during their Tuesday meeting that they send letters to state officials voicing their concerns about the slow pace of disaster recovery in the county.
A meeting could be held as early as the end of July for the owners of the 84 Wayne County properties slated for a buyout through the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The acquisitions could begin this fall, and the intent is to close on properties before the end of the year, said David Harris of RMS Harris Associates, the company the county has contracted with to manage the program.
Once professional services -- appraisers, surveyors and lawyers -- are hired, offers of purchase could be made within 90 days of that time, Harris told Wayne County commissioners on Tuesday.
However, the program will not be complete in 90 days, he said. Harris does not yet have a firm timetable for the process.
"But getting the first wave out, getting the information to the households and starting to schedule the ones that accept the offer, the ones that are priorities because they are renting somewhere, they are paying a mortgage, financially they are in a disaster," Harris said.
"We have got to prioritize those and get them to the front. In terms of closings, once that offer is made to accept it, it's up to the owner. I mean, this is a cash deal."
Wayne County has been awarded nearly $8 million in federal disaster aid to buyout the properties flooded during Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.
Once the structures are removed, the sites will be left open as green space in perpetuity.
Of the 84 properties, 22 are in Seven Springs. Of that total, 13 have been approved, while the other nine are pending historical clearance.
Harris said he is working with Assistant County Manager Chip Crumpler to schedule the meeting.
A packet including written information, guidelines, acquisition processes and who to contact will be provided to those who attend, he said.
Harris said people will be on hand to answer all questions until the property owners are satisfied and understand what the process is.
Harris said he hopes to have the meeting as early as the end of July or no later than the first of August, but the timing depends on the state.
The county has been awarded the money, but the state still has to prepare a grant agreement with the county, he said.
"We really need for the state to meet with us with the grant agreement before we schedule that meeting," Harris said. "I can give (property owners) every bit of information on the last acquisition projects, but I am not going to be 100 percent sure that is how it is going to be applied here."
Commissioner Ray Mayo said he has talked to several property owners who told him they had heard they would be contacted by middle of July, but that not a single one has been contacted yet.
"What does it take once you have been approved?" Mayo said.
The next step is for the state to prepare the fairly extensive grant agreement and submit it to the county, Harris said.
That would be followed by a meeting of state and local officials and staff from Harris' office to discuss the startup process.
"As I have told you in the past, every disaster seems to generate a different set of rules and requirements that we have to go over in the beginning before we actually get started," Harris said. "If we try to depend on the rules that existed in the past, there is a good chance that it has actually changed."
The startup meeting will provide the basics and standard operating procedure for the acquisition process, he said.
"When we get that, 'Here are your rules. Here are the requirements. Here is how you can avoid stepping on landmines and making expenditures that are not eligible.' Then we are in a position to do something."
Part of the review process is that there have been major changes in the rules for procurement of professional services, Harris said.
The county needs to be provided the new rules that went into effect July 1, he said.
The next step would then be to hire the appraisers, surveyors and attorneys.
"In any of these large-scale programs, when you want to hire professional services, the only way you can get the program done quickly is hire everybody who submits a proposal and that qualify," Harris said.
"In (Hurricane) Floyd when we were doing 500 units in a single buyout, we hired every single appraiser in the county and surrounding counties. We hired every single surveyor and all of the law firms."
They were put together in teams and then given assignments, Harris said.
Harris said he would love to get four or five appraisers, surveyors and attorneys, team them up and assign them 15 to 20 properties apiece at the same time.
That would place a burden on his staff to get that volume processed to the point of making offers, he said.
"But we have got to make up some time," he said. "We have got to be able to devote resources to it.
"We are sitting here with a simple little question of, hey, do the new federal guidelines allow us to hire most of the ones who submit proposals?"
Harris also updated the board on the county's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program.
The application process for that program is going faster than just three months ago, he said.
Harris said more staff has been hired in an effort to speed up the process and accept walk-ins as well as those who register by calling 2-1-1.
Wayne County is now a regional intake center, and the state has set up sites in Kinston, Windsor and Fair Bluff, he said.
Also in June, N.C. Emergency Management hired Innovative Emergency Management to manage the statewide CDBG-DR program.
As of July 16:
• 258 applications have been received at the Wayne County intake center.
• 132 applications have been completed and submitted to N.C. Emergency Management for approval, of which 117 have been approved and are eligible for assistance, while 15 are renters who do not meet requirements. But they are being kept in the mix since the state might come up with its own funds for that category, Harris said.
• 126 applications are in process at the intake center of which 21 are from residents from Craven, Duplin, Hoke, Johnston, Pender, Pitt and Sampson counties.
The state has begun inspections at the homes determined to be eligible, Harris said.
They are determining the repairs, if any, made by the owner and identifying the repairs remaining required by the CDBG-DR housing standards, Harris said.
The inspectors also will prepare a scope of work for the required repairs along with estimates of the remaining costs or each home.
Thus far, 84 damage inspections/assessments have been completed in Wayne County, Harris said.
"There is going be a five-year recapture provision from CDBG, if we provide assistance to a household, to prevent people from selling the next day and profiting," Harris said.
The state set a standard of five years, whether it involves repairs or construction, he said.
"That information will be provided the families in writing," Harris said. "My guess is they will be going out, certainly, in less than 90 days and possibly some starting within 30 days, and then the process will hopefully begin for some actual brick and mortar work and some real construction work at some of the sites."
The application intake center is located in the former Farm Service Agency Building, 209 W. Spruce St.
It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.