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Council receives report on drainage problems at 720 First Street; staff to monitor
Summary
A resident described persistent flooding under his house and in an outbuilding; an engineering assessment tied the issue to upstream runoff from school property and a bottleneck in downstream easements. Council accepted the report and will monitor.
Resident Kenneth Biber told the Town Council that water pooling and runoff are causing ongoing damage to his house and an adjacent shop at 1720 (or 720) South First Street and that water has risen into his crawl space and shop. The council voted to receive the report and monitor the situation.
Why it matters: the flooding has caused interior house damage, standing water in an accessory building and disruption to the resident’s living conditions; county, state and school property drainage affect private property downstream.
What was presented: town staff and a hired engineering firm assessed drainage patterns near the school and along Highway 58. Staff member Chris said the school system had an engineer examine how stormwater leaves the school property and that the school’s stormwater generally routes correctly but that downstream easements and ditches were “bottlenecking up” when water left the school property. Chris summarized the engineer’s findings: cleaning ditches (including work requested of the state Department of Transportation) and clearing downstream easements should substantially reduce the lake that forms in front of the school and reduce flooding to the resident’s property short of a large flood event.
Resident Kenneth Biber described interior damage: “My crawl space is... I know it's wet,” and said his house was up to 80 degrees and that water was entering his shop, “it's about a foot water goes in there.” Councilmembers and staff discussed DOT ditch cleaning, recent town crew cleaning of a local waterway and that further cleanup of easements behind properties and near the ball fields was required.
Outcome: the council moved to receive Biber’s report and to monitor the site; the motion carried by voice vote. Staff said crews had recently cleared one waterway upstream and that improvements should be visible in subsequent rains; the council and staff will continue to track conditions and pursue further easement/ditch cleanup with DOT and property owners as needed.
