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Marion launches public website to gather stormwater data for master plan
Summary
City staff and consultant HDR demonstrated an online mapping tool that will collect resident reports and photos for Marion's stormwater master plan; the site will go live next week and remain open for one year.
City staff and an engineering consultant on Jan. 7 demonstrated a public website that will collect resident comments and photos to inform Marion's stormwater master plan.
The demonstration was led by Steve Cooper, the city’s stormwater coordinator, and Stephanie Thane Hoege, project manager and water resources engineer with HDR. Kim Hughes, HDR’s public outreach lead, explained that the site will explain what stormwater is, describe the study’s three phases and let residents drop pins and upload photos at locations where they have seen flooding, erosion or drainage problems.
The site is intended to gather observations while HDR builds a hydraulic model and conducts condition assessments. “When we see a comment come in, say a detention basin overtopping, we’ll compare that to our model results,” Thane Hoege said. HDR staff said repeated reports about a particular basin would prompt a site survey and condition assessment; if the problem is maintenance-related, staff would add it to the city’s maintenance plan.
Cooper said the site will be available next week and remain online for one year. He and HDR emphasized the study focuses on publicly owned storm sewer infrastructure that drains to creeks; it does not evaluate FEMA floodplain boundaries or creek channel flooding.
Council members asked how the city will handle urgent repairs identified during the yearlong data-collection window. Cooper said emergency repairs will be handled through existing public works processes: “If there’s something that’s an emergency repair that has to be done right now, that’s when we work with Kim and Mike in public works and make sure that [they] get out there and fix it right away.”
The presentation noted the study will produce existing-condition modeling (expected end of February), a prioritized list of candidate projects and a capital improvement program (CIP) targeted for spring 2026, and a final capstone report in summer 2026. Cooper told council the city currently budgets about $120,000 annually for stormwater program work but the master plan will provide the guidance needed to set realistic multi‑year funding targets.
The council praised the public-engagement approach and asked staff to make residents aware of the site through the city’s usual outreach channels. HDR said the website will accept photos (not videos) and that residents can email video files to the project team.
