Dive Brief:
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has cut off funding to Indiana because the city of Kokomo, IN, refuses to stop building a baseball stadium in a flood zone.
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The action immediately withholds $5.5 million slated for projects, such as building tornado safe rooms in schools. It could delay other construction if Kokomo doesn’t comply with a FEMA order to build the stadium on drier land.
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It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen without a court order. The state Legislature so far has chosen not to intervene, and Kokomo has filed a lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, which administers FEMA funds and has halted construction on eight of the stadium’s 70 parcels, which it said must remain as open space.
Dive Insight:
The city’s side of the story: The feds don’t have any business telling it where to build its stadium, which will be home to Prospect League team Kokomo Jackrabbits and local high school teams. City officials have called actions by FEMA and the state DHS government “overreach,” and contend they “are fully compliant with the deed restrictions placed on the parcels.”