By BRIAN IANIERI Press of A.C. Staff Writer | Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sea Isle City is hosting a public meeting this morning on its hopes to comply one day with federal floodwater management guidelines that offer discounts on residents’ flood insurance premiums.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the city’s Community Lodge on Park Road.

Mayor Leonard Desiderio said the city has taken strides over the years to reduce the effects of flood damage, including banning enclosed garages for new beachfront properties.

Many of the current problems involve homeowners not having flood vents, Desiderio said.

The city hopes to qualify eventually for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Community Rating System, a voluntary program that offers discounts incrementally.

The program is designed to entice municipalities to enact certain programs and policies.

For example, Ocean City receives a 15 percent reduction in its insurance premiums and is working toward a higher percentage, Ocean City Business Administrator James Rutala said.

Avalon has been receiving discounts on flood insurance premiums though the FEMA rating system since 1996.

In March 2007, the agency designated Avalon as one of the most prepared coastal municipalities between Maine and North Carolina, a distinction that also made Avalon homeowners eligible for 20 percent reductions on flood insurance premiums – or an average of $114 per policy holder, federal officials said at the time.

In 1996, FEMA threatened to levy a $50 surcharge on Sea Isle City residents’ flood insurance after years of noncompliance with floodwater management programs but later backed off when the city addressed some of the problems.