High River Town Council has authorized the Mayor to send an official letter to the Alberta government to remove 16 homes in the northwest part of town from the Southern Alberta Floodway Relocation Program.

Craig Snodgrass says there's nothing wrong with them.

"They were minimally impacted in 2013 with flood waters, now we've got these berms in place, if you look at the drawings, if those homes were demolished, what those homes would look like, it's ridiculous," Snodgrass says.

He says he's been dealing personally with government officials, including Alberta Environment trying to get the homes returned to private ownership quietly but that hasn't worked.

He says if they need an official letter he's willing to do whatever it takes.

The homes are on Riverside Drive and High View Park.

"Let's get it dealt with properly and get those homes occupied because the homes are just fine, we toured them and they are just fine, you can hook them up to gas and electricity and you can live in them tomorrow," he says.

The government has said no decision will be made on releasing them from the program until an official request is received from the mayor and new flood maps come out, sometime in the fall or early in 2018.