BRICK – With the town receiving an improved rating, Brick residents who have flood insurance coverage will now save more on premiums this year.
On March 24, Mayor John G. Ducey announced that the township was improved to a Class 5 community in the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System thanks to the town’s efforts for floodplain management.
As a result, this gives residents a 25% discount compared to the previous 20%.
“Getting Brick Township into the Community Rating System was an enormous accomplishment. We have many homeowners in Brick Township who have to pay flood insurance and our staff worked hard to make sure we met the requirements of the program,” Ducey said. “They did not stop working to find ways to improve our rating and help those homeowners save even more money on their flood insurance.”
In 2016, Brick Township first enrolled into the Program as a CRS Class 6 community. The improvement to a Class 5 community increases the discount that residents who pay flood insurance premiums will ultimately receive to 25%.
The National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System was launched in 1990 as a voluntary program for recognizing and encouraging community floodplain management activities.
If a town does certain work to reduce flood damage to insurable properties, strengthen and support the insurance aspects of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), everyone in the town benefits with better rates. In addition, the system encourages a comprehensive approach to floodplain management.
After accomplishing a Class 6 CRS, the Township Floodplain Management Planning Committee has collaborated with the Divisions of Land Use Planning and Engineering Division to improve the Township’s processes and procedures to improve to a Class Rating 5.
By implementing new programs, completing new studies such as Flood Warning and Response Plan, increasing open space preservation in the floodplain and documenting compliance with Floodplain regulations, the town was about to reach this improvement.
A major accomplishment was reducing the number of non-compliant repetitive loss properties from 102 to 68.
“The improvement in our rating is a reflection on the dedication and knowledge of our staff, particularly our Land Use and Engineering Staff,” Ducey said. “I commend them for their efforts and I am confident they will continue to work to earn more credits and hopefully improve our rating even further.”
