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<br /> <br />some houses were old enough to <br />make a hisIorical study mandaIory, <br />and Ihe city had to hire historians <br />from the SIaIe Historic Preservation <br />Office to make analyses. Alier Ihese <br />preliminaries. the city officials gave <br />each homeowner a price value and <br />time to evaluate.18 <br /> <br />In Cry sIal City. the city <br />adminisIration followed the same <br />procedure. Fourteen of the original 17 <br />applicants accepIed the govemmel1ls <br />offer. In Festus. all applicants had <br />accepted the offer. 19 <br /> <br />Jefferson CounIy also fol- <br />lowed the same procedure. but <br />because of the large numbers of <br />applicants. the process took longer. <br />Of Ihe 106 homeowners who had <br />originally expressed an interesI in a <br /> <br />buyOUI. Ihe state approved funds for <br />89. Later, funds were available for an <br />addiIional 41 houses whose owners <br />had expressed interest in Ihe program <br />in June 1994. By May 28, 1995. <br />Jefferson County had closed on 75 <br />houses and was negotiating with II <br />more homeowners.2o <br /> <br />As Jefferson County was <br />negotiaIing for these houses, another <br />bout of heavy rain had caused <br />\looding of Ihe Meramec and Big <br />Rivers. Many of Ihe people whose <br />homes were threatened had decided <br />to take the buyout offer and were <br />already gone. bur Ihe onslaught <br />frightened some addiIional people <br />into exploring the buyout program.21 <br /> <br />To help these individuals and <br />others throughout the slate who had <br /> <br />also been victimized by \loods in <br />1995. Governor Carnahan announced <br />he would tl)' 10 find addiIional funds <br />10 accommodate any homeowner <br />who had missed an opporIunity to try <br />the bUYOUI in 1993.22 True 10 his <br />word, Ihe Governor found additional <br />money. For Jefferson County. that <br />meant an additional $900.000.23 <br /> <br /> <br />By February 1997. Jefferson <br />CounIy had tinished its buyout <br />program. It had acquired 131 proper- <br />ties along with a Iota I of 118 pads at <br />two mobile home parks and one large <br />apartment complex.24 The cosI of <br />these purchases had been $3.122.758. <br />ranking Jefferson County third in <br />buyout funds expended atier Sl. <br />Charles County ($14.617.424) and Sl. <br />Louis County ($ 5.502.746).25 <br /> <br />Page 41 <br />