The next round of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grant funding to address major city drainage issues likely won’t be available until 2016, but Columbus leaders are ensuring they have a seat at the table when that happens.
Councilmen approved a request Tuesday from Kevin Stafford of city engineering firm Neel-Schaffer to notify USACE that Columbus is interested in participating in the program and identify a project they would like to see considered.
The project was conceptually laid out by the firm in 2011. It involves building a diversion channel alongside Highway 82 between the Military Road exit and Luxapallila Creek to reduce frequent structural flooding caused by inadequate downstream channel capacity.
“In the central portion of the city along 14th Avenue, Seventh Avenue, Propst Park around the (Columbus) Brickyard, there’s about 886 acres that are drained through that area,” Stafford said. “We’ve started at Propst Park and slowly worked upstream as the money has become available. What we’ve found as a better solution is a diversion channel which would basically take about 213 acres that all comes out of Cady Hills around the Lowe’s area and catches (storm water) before it gets to the brickyard and the 23rd and the 22nd Avenue area, areas that right now have issues with sanitary and storm water mixing. It will catch that storm water before it gets to that point and floods those areas and it takes it off to the east on the north side of the bypass and directly to the Lux.”
Stafford said the channel, which would cost $3 million to build, would prevent a $15 million infrastructure upgrade that would be needed to fix the entire basin because it removes a quarter of the basin and diverts excess water away from the rest of it.
The project would also serve areas of Martin Luther King Drive that are affected, Columbus Mayor Robert Smith added.
Once the city has submitted a notification of interest and a proposed project, it can submit more projects, Stafford said, each one of which can range from $30,000 to $8 million in scope.
There’s one catch: Each project requires a 25 percent match. A $3 million project would require a $750,000 commitment from the city. Smith said, however, that city officials would likely gauge interest from Columbus Light & Water on chipping in if funding is awarded.
“Our plans are to talk to the light and water department because they have some problems in these same areas also,” Smith said.
Stafford said he’d spoken with a USACE official to find out how many projects could be submitted for the program.
“She said, ‘We want to fund them all if the money is there and you have the match available,'” Stafford said. “The good thing is we have two years to think about this and budget. I hope this is a starting point for maybe a lot of other things that we could put out there and hopefully get funded.”
2013 HOME projects will be resubmitted
In other business, the council approved updating and resubmitting an application from last year for grant funding through the HOME Investment Partnership Program.
The program, overseen by the Mississippi Development Authority, is designed to help low-income families that own homes in disrepair. The program pays to have houses repaired or rebuilt at no expense to the homeowner or municipality.
Last year, the city applied for funding to have three homes repaired in Southside, which is in Ward 1. The application was disqualified due to a technical error.
Last week during a special meeting, councilmen were presented with two options: Update last year’s application and try again or begin the process for putting together a new application with different homes to be considered. A motion made by Ward 1 councilman Gene Taylor during that meeting to go with the first option failed in a 2-3 vote. On Tuesday night, Taylor again made an identical motion to the one he proposed last week.
Ward 5 councilman Kabir Karriem made a substitute motion to open the process up to the public and allow the results to determine what homes are included in the application and where they are. Funding is awarded based on multiple ratings criteria, one of which includes having all the residences in its application concentrated in a two-block area. A minimum of two houses and a maximum of five can be in an application.
After rehashing the details of the application process explained during the special meeting, Karriem’s substitute motion failed 2-4. He received support from Ward 4 councilman Marty Turner, but Taylor, Ward 2 councilman Joseph Mickens, Ward 3 councilman Charlie Box and Ward 6 councilman Bill Gavin voted against the motion. A vote on Taylor’s original motion passed unanimously.
Two more houses in the two-block area can be added to the three already in the application if they meet the criteria.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.