Katrina and FEMA rear their @#$^&*% Heads

Yesterday's post, prematurely entitled, "I's Dotted; T's Crossed" is today officially inoperative.

Allow me to explain (vent).

It was suggested that we get a zoning department official to make a trip out to the building site and offer opinions on potential problems and get a preliminary go ahead. The trip cost $75 which is then deducted fr0m the fee for the permits.

We did that. The official gave his blessing as long as we stayed within the same footprint. We could go outside the footprint of the existing building if it was 40 away from the water's edge.

Based upon that, the planning ensued.

We applied for a load at People's Bank in Minocqua and received our 'stellar' financial ratings. A week ago, our loan officer, before leaving for a one-week vacation left a cryptic message on our answering machine, which said, in effect, that when doing their due diligence, FEMA claimed that our house was located on a flood plain.

He did not sound too concerned and proffered that the worst thing that he thought could happen is that we would have to purchase flood insurance. As the walkout from the ground floor is now approximately 20 feet from the Wisconsin River, this, too, caused no concern on our part. He suggested that I call our insurance company to check out the purchase of this insurance.

I did so. And in conversation with them, they said that we were not in a flood plain and, in any case, our house was listed as 'low risk' for flooding.

Concurrently with the permitting process for the detachment and reattachment, our builder requested and we provided copies of a building permit from 1986 that showed the details of the septic installation.

It also showed the details from the building addition. On the permit, copies of which were obtained from the county planning and zoning department, it states, "This property is NOT (emphasis added) on a flood plain."

Yesterday after the contract was signed, our builder went to obtain the necessary permits. He was refused because the same department that made the site visit, the same department that said we weren't on a flood plain, now says that we are on a #$$%&*@ flood plain.

So after some substantial research our builder discovered that the magic number is 1560, that is 1560 feet above sea level. He scramble up a surveyor who came up with 1566.8. However, that was measured from the front of the current house and not the walkout of the ground floor.

So fortunately some of the deconstruction involves the use of a sledge hammer, a fairly substantial one I must say, and seems to be a productive way of venting frustration.

That and writing this @#(%#$ blog.