MAHONING VALLEY Boardman worries about next storm

Some residents believe the flooding stems from poor township planning.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Township residents are drying out and assessing damages for the second time in three weeks -- most of them worrying about what lies beyond the next storm.
Gary Dawson, road superintendent, said the township had an unofficial count of 3.6 inches of rainfall Saturday evening. Floodwater was as deep as 4 feet, he said.
A visit to virtually any neighborhood will show the destruction left in the wake of Saturday's floods -- piles of furniture, carpeting, soiled clothes and family heirlooms stacked in front of homes.
Carpet lined the outside of each basement apartment window at Boulevard Club Apartments on West Boulevard on Monday afternoon. The apartments, some for the second time, were flooded, causing residents to be relocated until damages could be repaired.
Across the apartment grounds residents could be seen trying to recover. Some carried out mildewed furniture. Others tried to get vehicles started with floor mats airing out a short distance away.
Tara Drive neighborhood
The scene was being repeated on the other side of the township along Tara Drive. No destroyed items lined the curb, but almost every garage was filled with family valuables.
It was the second time in three weeks Tara Drive was inundated.
Dee Kountz could only shake her head while looking at the stacked power tools in her garage. She said the tools were taken out of the basement and put in the garage after the first flood in July to see what, if anything, could be salvaged. Now only one piece of equipment will start.
Kountz said she was in the process of installing a furnace to replace one lost in the earlier flood. She and a neighbor, in knee-deep water, were forced to tear down the new furnace before water from the second flood destroyed it as well. The furnace sits in pieces in her kitchen.
Her neighbors, Lynne and Tony Scacchetti, could not pull out the replacement water heater they installed after the first flood in July. The heater, which should have lasted 15 years, was destroyed after three weeks of use.
Tony Scacchetti estimates his loss from the first flood at about $30,000. To that total he will be adding a pool table and $3,000 worth of carpeting he finished pulling up Monday.
Most of the Tara Drive residents say they are reluctant to replace items lost in the flooding out of fear that the next big rain will just bring more destruction.
"The real big problem that people don't realize is the psychological effect this has," said Tony Scacchetti. "If it rains in the middle of the night we get up and head to the basement. You feel like you can't even go on vacation."
Who's to blame?
Many Tara Drive area residents feel the flooding can be attributed, in part, to poor planning by the township -- with all the development, rainwater has nowhere else to go.
"They don't look out for the little guy, but for these big businesses," said Kountz. "When you have a community that is 85 percent asphalt, where do you think all this water is going to go."
Zoning inspector Darren Crivelli said the township adopted the design criteria of the Mahoning County Engineer's Office for storm-water retention a number of years ago.
New developments, residential and commercial, he said, must adhere to those standards. He said the level of rain seen in the past few weeks would compromise any system.
"What jurisdiction can you go to that can take this much rain without flooding -- if they're out there then God bless them," he said. "With the Federal Emergency Management Agency here that should tell you this is a result of nature, not planning."
jgoodwin@vindy.com