VALLEY CITY (NewsDakota.com) Acting on a request from Valley City, officials with the Lake Agassiz Regional Council are exploring options to see if nine Valley City properties qualify for a Federal Emergency Management agency buyout.

Lake Agassiz Development Group spokeswoman Amber Schaan said, “we’re working with Valley City to try to qualify 9 properties for Hazard Mitigation grant funds, at this point none of the 9 will qualify. We’re still working on some other analysis that could bring some if not all the properties into qualification.”

Lake Agassiz Certified Development Company Executive Director Irvin Rustad said, “after all options are explored the group will submit their full report back to the city next month.”

Valley City Commissioner Matt Pedersen said this FEMA buyout proposal is different from the other plan being worked on by the State Water Commission and the city Flood Task Force committee.