How should $4 million in grant money be spent in the Upper Iowa River Watershed?

University of Iowa staffers from the Iowa Flood Center visited Decorah Wednesday to continue the discussion about getting the state to be more "resilient" when it comes to flooding.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Iowa a $96.9 million grant to help eight watershed authorities to identify their strengths, challenges and priorities and then to take a number of actions designed to enable the state to better cope with flooding.

The Upper Iowa River Watershed will be one of three "pilot projects" in the first few years of the grant.  It's estimated that there will be around $4 million available to help implement flood control measure in perhaps four subwatersheds of the Upper Iowa.

But which subwatersheds should be selected?  That wasn't the focus of Wednesday's meeting, but it attracted a lot of talk, nonetheless.

Longtime soil & water activist John Rodecap of Decorah urged the pilot project to consider awarding money to low income and starting farmers and not just to farmers who have the money for their share of a matching grant.

There was also discussion about picking subwatersheds where flooding has been an issue in the past and not ones which have been "dry" following heavy rains.

USDA/NRCS office manager Todd Duncan told the group his agency is willing to house an Upper Iowa River Watershed manager in their office.  He says the NRCS is in constant contact with area farmers, so housing the coordinator at their office would make sense.