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Like an adult child leaving home, Luzerne County&#8217;s 19-year-old Flood Protection Authority will be moving out of a county-owned building and furthering its independence.Is leaving the nest wise?The answer is of public interest because the authority handles a weighty responsibility: maintenance and deployment of the Wyoming Valley levee system along the Susquehanna River.The authority&#8217;s ability to fund its obligations also is a concern because it must survive solely on an annual fee on 14,200 levee-protected properties, and this fee may be rising for the first time since its implementation in 2009.Authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman, an engineer, said the authority&#8217;s search for a new headquarters and movement away from the mother ship make sense.The shuffling is being handled with care to ensure the levee stays primed for battle without financially overburdening levee fee payers, he said.&#8220;I think this is a good thing, and it shouldn&#8217;t worry anybody,&#8221; Belleman said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just a matter of the authority maturing and beginning to assert itself.&#8221;Created in &#8216;96County officials created the authority in 1996 as part of the levee-raising because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted a single entity to operate and take care of the flood control system, ending inconsistent maintenance when the county and several municipalities were in charge of different stretches.In its youth, the authority was entirely dependent on county government.In addition to funding some of the levee-raising, the county covered the authority&#8217;s expenses and provided its staffing. County officials believed it was more cost effective and efficient to be the lifeline instead of forcing the authority to duplicate and obtain its own staffing and assistance for services such as billing and legal advice.County employees and all three commissioners served on the five-person authority.The authority operated from the engineers&#8217; office, and county staffers and officials were instantly accessible during floods to help with levee closure installation, sandbagging, security and inspections.The weaning away from the county has been gradual.The authority created an executive director position in 2007 so an engineer could focus solely on authority business.The levee fee was added to relieve the county&#8217;s strapped general fund operating budget. Since then, the authority has been reimbursing the county for all of its use of county resources, including its office space.The new home rule government that took effect in January 2012 switched the composition of the authority&#8217;s governing board to five citizen volunteers.Authority members hired their own solicitor in October 2012 instead of relying on a county assistant solicitor.When the authority relocates to leased space off county property, the county&#8217;s only remaining direct link will be council&#8217;s continued appointment of the authority&#8217;s citizen board members.Wider reachBelleman said he&#8217;s confident the county will continue to provide back-up when the Susquehanna River floods, but he&#8217;s also seeking out other help and trying to get everyone&#8217;s involvement in writing so there&#8217;s no confusion.County turnover and the loss of several veteran staffers has erased some of the institutional knowledge of what needs to be done on and around the levee when it floods. County staffing cuts have reduced the manpower available to help during flooding.&#8220;I have to look at the reality of the situation. The county has less people and less resources,&#8221; Belleman said.He&#8217;s not criticizing the county.&#8220;The burden should not be fully on the county to help the authority in flood response. It&#8217;s the whole community&#8217;s responsibility,&#8221; he said.Belleman has reached out to levee-protected municipalities requesting memorandums of understanding outlining what, if any, equipment, manpower and supplies they will provide during flooding. For example, municipalities could agree to provide portable emergency lighting and pumps, assistance to keep people off the levee or help supplying and/or installing sand bags.When the river floods, around 7,000 sandbags are needed along the 16 miles of levee, including many at 20 openings that must be closed, Belleman said.The authority will provide training to ensure municipalities understand the work involved, he said.More recruitingBelleman also is reaching out to professional engineering associations to line up engineers who will volunteer to patrol assigned levee stretches seeking seepage and other problems that must be addressed when it floods. A few local engineers have provided this assistance in the past, but Belleman said he wants to expand the number and formalize a roster for quick mobilization.The authority also is negotiating a new cooperation agreement with the county to clarify their new relationship. The current agreement has been in place since 1998 and is somewhat vague, officials say.County officials stress they will continue to provide all available assistance when the levee is activated.&#8220;It will be all hands on deck. We will be in full response mode together. It will be no different than what was done in the past,&#8221; said county Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau.Levee feeBelleman will present options for the 2015 levee fee, including a possible increase, to the authority for its consideration, likely at Tuesday&#8217;s meeting.The fee, which generates about $1.1 million annually, ranges from $46.85 to $93.70 for residential properties and $93.70 to $676.44 for commercial, industrial and tax-exempt properties. The fees are based on property assessments.The authority has been spending around that amount to cover staffing, its reimbursement to the county, outside accounting and auditing services, insurance, levee maintenance expenses and utilities, including electricity at 13 levee pumping stations, records show.Belleman said he does not expect an outside office lease to hurt the budget because the authority already is paying the county for space.A levee fee increase would build up a reserve to replace worn equipment and install more gates at levee openings to reduce the need for sandbags, Belleman said.He also wants to start setting aside money so the authority can purchase its own building in a few years, including space for storage so levee-related equipment isn&#8217;t scattered at various locations.The authority funds 11 positions &#8212; the executive director, an executive secretary and nine county levee maintenance employees.The authority eventually must obtain its own health insurance instead of purchasing it through the county, though Belleman doesn&#8217;t expect that will happen until 2017.Monthly and quarterly maintenance to comply with federal levee standards also must be factored into the authority budget, he said. The federal government funded $2 million in repairs to the levee from record 2011 flooding because the authority has adhered to these standards, he said.Bills for this year&#8217;s levee fee will be mailed in October, he said.&#8220;I&#8217;m very respectful of money paid through the levee fee. We make sure all expenditures are well thought-out and necessary,&#8221; Belleman said.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Belleman </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Belleman-Chris.jpg</photo0><caption0>Belleman </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_sandbaguse.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Andy Tuzinski, Forty Fort borough&#8217;s EMA director, assists with sand bags at the Wyoming Valley levee base during record 2011 Susquehanna River flooding. The Flood Protection Authority that oversees the levee is seeking municipal cooperation agreements committing to this type of emergency assistance in the future. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_sandbaguse.jpg</photo1><caption1>Andy Tuzinski, Forty Fort borough&#8217;s EMA director, assists with sand bags at the Wyoming Valley levee base during record 2011 Susquehanna River flooding. The Flood Protection Authority that oversees the levee is seeking municipal cooperation agreements committing to this type of emergency assistance in the future. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Jennifer Learn-Andesjandes@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Valley levee overseer breaking away from Luzerne County government