Council Moving Forward with Plan to Cut Flood Insurance Costs

The Oakland Council is moving forward with a plan that could potentially save National Flood Insurance Program customers in the borough thousands in the coming years.

The council agreed to put a resolution approving a $9,500 bid from Little Falls based Agnoli Engineering to prepare an application for FEMA’s Community Ratings System (CRS) on the agenda for its Aug. 28 meeting.

The CRS offers discounts to the residents of a municipality based on the local government’s efforts to mitigate flooding. The system works on a sliding scale, beginning at 10 and moving up to 1, offering residents a 5 percent discount on insurance at each step.

The lowest bid on the project was Boswell Engineering, but Flood Commission chair Lew Levy said that the commission voted to recommend Agnoli to the council based on the firm’s experience preparing applications.

The firm, he said, helped Neptune receive the highest rating in the state, a 5, which gives residents there a 25 percent discount on their insurance. According to Levy, Agnoli has prepared applications for 18 New Jersey towns, which have wound up with an average rating of 7.

The effort comes as big increases in costs for NFIP customers loom. The federally subsidized rates offered through the program have left a $30 billion hole in its coffers, according to a recent report, and a bill passed by Congress last year moved to increase the rates by 25 percent annually until rates reflect the true risk of property damage from floods.

“It’s because of this impending large increase that it’s important,” Council President Chris Visconti said Wednesday night.

Levy told the council that given flood control mitigation steps already taken by the borough, taxpayers could save a total of as much as $36,000 from the start, with more potential savings coming from annual reevaluations. He estimated that there are around 200 NFIP customers in Oakland.

Upon a likely approval of the bid, the firm will work with the borough to advise officials on mitigation projects and account for those already undertaken.

Although the borough could have prepared the application itself, Mayor Linda Schwager said that the results would be improved with the hiring of a specialist.

“A layperson cannot do this,” she said. “It needs a professional.”