Mayor Provides Drainage Update

Drainage, flooding, rain, thunderstorms, canals, ditches — the list goes on and on. These words have become common vernacular in Central since long before the Flood of August 2016. Central has been known as a community with more than its fair share of flooding.

The Flood of 2016 was a phenomenon that I hope we never experience again in our lifetimes. But the reality is, we can never assure ourselves that it won’t flood again. What we can do is attempt to minimize the risk of floods. And that is exactly what we are attempting to do.

Drainage improvements are a slow and costly process. But we must do it. We have been doing it everyday since this administration took office in July 2014. It has been a priority, whether it was cleaning the ditch in front of someone’s

house or clearing major canals.

The work done in neighborhoods and in roadside ditches is easily seen, but the work on major canals, located deep in the woods, is rarely seen. We embarked on a project to clear the “choke points” (250 originally with an additional 50-75 more identified during the work) created by the Flood of 2016.

Over 1,400 tons, or 2.4 million pounds, of dead vegetation has been removed from our canals. This debris caused back ups in the canals and flooding. Other man-made debris was removed such as tires, satellite dishes, back ends of pick up trucks, fences built in the canals, collapsed creosote bridges that had fallen into the canals, and other large obstructions.

Roadside, neighborhood ditches have been dug. Culverts cleaned out or replaced. Catch basins cleared and other infrastructure cleaning has taken place. There is no one fix for all of the drainage issues.

There are literally thousands of small projects and much larger projects that need to be worked on. Anytime a resident calls with a problem, we assess the area and work to resolve the issue. Nothing is ignored.

If a citizen thinks his issue is not being addressed properly, call me at City Hall and I can assure you that we will take care of it.

Following the Flood of 2016, I worked with literally hundreds of citizens on a variety of topics, ranging from FEMA money to securing a Manufactured Housing Unit. I sat and cried with citizens. I prayed with them. I listened to how we as a city could help them.

Nothing is more important to me or the council than for our citizens to have a safe and secure environment to live. This administration and council wants to solve every drainage issue out there.

We have engaged a company to complete a Master Drainage Plan that will be comprehensive in scope to address our needs. A major portion of this plan is to develop an ongoing maintenance plan for our canals.

Some have asked why we are studying the drainage? That’s easy.  You wouldn’t attempt to build a house without a plan and I am not going to try to solve our drainage problems without a plan. I have been and will continue to take advice from engineers. They are our best hope for solving our issues.

I invite you to look at the newly developed page on the city web page – https://www.centralgov.com/drainage.

That gives information on the work done, work planned and pictures to show progress. It also gives tips to help homeowners to reduce their risk of flooding.

I will be happy to sit with citizens and discuss their specific issues or they can call me at City Hall, 261-5988. Also, take a look at the November 9, 2017 edition of the Central City News.  They had a very good article on our work.