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LAGRANGE, MO. -- It's been almost three years of waiting, but now the city of LaGrange has some good news.

They will get about $300,000 of Community Development Block Grant money to begin the process of buying out property that was affected by the 2008 flood.

And although state funding is on the way, actual demolition won't start until later this year.

Take a drive down Main Street in LaGrange and you see a typical small town along the Mississippi River.  But LaGrange didn't look like that back in the summer of 2008.

Instead of a car going down Main Street it was travel by boat.

So after the flood waters went down, LaGrange city administrator Mark Campbell knew something had to be done and a property buy out was the answer.

"Yeah we started off with about 17 and we're down to 12 now. There was a few, there was a formula that kicked in towards the whole project and after that it was looked at and there was a few people who sold their properties," said Campbell

He said the city is getting a total of about $1.2 million to help with the buyout.  But there won't be any demolition starting for several months.

Campbell said, "As I said it's a voluntary, we still have a bit in the process to go through, of getting appraisers in and all the rest of it and then making offers to the property owners."

And once the buildings are demolished through the buyout program, federal guidelines say no other building can be built on the property.

Also according to a press release from Missouri State Senator Brian Munzlinger, the City of Hannibal will also get money through the Community Development Block Grant Program for their buyout application as well.