LIVERMORE FALLS — Voters in Livermore and Livermore Falls must amend floodplain management ordinances passed in June to correct an error on map references.
It’s not serious, but it needs to be changed, Sue Baker, state coordinator of the National Flood Insurance Program, said Wednesday. She said the state “fell down on the job” when certain changes came from the federal government between the preliminary and the final drafts of the digital flood insurance rate maps.
Towns affected in Androscoggin County were sent letters from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry in regards to the error. It asks towns that have voted recently to update floodplain management ordinances to comply with federal standards to amend the ordinances by the next town meeting.
Livermore Falls will hold a special town meeting July 22 to deal with several failed municipal ordinances. Voters will also be asked to amend the floodplain ordinance at that time.
Livermore will take up the amendment at its annual town meeting in June 2014.
The recently amended ordinances assure the towns of continued participation in the National Flood Insurance Program, which affords flood insurance and disaster assistance to residents in the towns.
When Androscoggin County goes online with its digital mapping system on Monday, it will be the third county to do so, Baker said.
Converting floodplain maps to a digital format is one more step toward the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s goal to acquire more accurate mapping, according to the state‘s website.
It does not address all the flaws in existing maps. However, it will make the maps easier to change in the future and reduce the costs of printing new maps in the long term. Processing Maine’s floodplain maps to a digital format for distribution in electronic media and on the Internet will increase availability to more people than ever before, the site states.
The first counties to be remapped into a completely digital format are Oxford, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Cumberland and York.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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