CAMPBELL Irked by damage from floods, many gripe to council

Sewer upgrades will be included in Issue 2 funding requests, the mayor said.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- "Please help us," pleaded one of about 25 residents who turned out to complain to city council about the damages their homes sustained during a storm last week that flooded several neighborhoods.
"This is the second major flood we've had and I lost a furnace, freezer, washer and dryer. Those things can be replaced. I lost irreplaceable things, too," the Almasy Drive homeowner said at Wednesday's city council meeting. "I'm still digging out and I'm still finding things that are ruined."
"I know you are not at fault. You did not put in the sewers, but we need resolution. Something has to be done," said another Almasy Drive homeowner whose $35,000 built-in pool was lifted out of the ground by the water.
"I know this is your last meeting until September, but we don't want to wait until September to hear back from you on this," he added.
"From left to right, right to left -- all promises and lies," shouted an older man with paint-spattered hands.
When will help arrive?
A 20-year-old Kendall Avenue resident asked what the city was going to do to help those affected. "Me and my roommate are just starting out and now we have nothing." Their first-floor apartment sustained so much damage they had to move out.
"I don't care who put the sewers in. I know our city is broke. But if you ask any of these people, no amount of money is too much to fix this. You are smart enough to find the money. There are grants out there. There's a lot of federal money available," said a 63-year-old man who described himself as "lucky" because insurance will cover most of the damages his property sustained.
"We talk about this when there's a disaster, but do you guys talk about this through the year?" asked a young woman whose home has been flooded three times.
"We just want somebody to step up to the plate, dig some holes and put in bigger drains. And we want to hear about it before September," she said.
Mayor's comments
Several things contributed to Friday night's flooding but the amount of rain was the primary factor, said Mayor Jack Dill.
"It rained 26 out of 39 days and between 10 p.m. and midnight Friday, we got 2.7 inches of rain, I don't know of a sewer system anywhere that could handle almost 3 inches of rain in two hours, and the ground was already saturated," he said.
"Flooding has been an ongoing problem in some neighborhoods and we cleaned out the storm sewers in the problem areas last year," he said. The storm last week didn't just affect those areas, Dill continued, "it was the entire city. We had problems in neighborhoods that never had problems. Roosevelt Park, the entire park, was under 2 feet of water."
Revamping the sewer system throughout the city will be a very costly project, "it could be between $12 [million] and $15 million," he said. "But we're going to have to do something, even if we do it in phases two streets a year."
Tight financial situation
Grants might be available, Dill continued, but the city would still have to come up with the matching funds, which would be especially difficult given the cut in revenues as the result of businesses such as Cold Metal Products closing.
A handful of firefighters and police officers had to be laid off when Cold Metal shut down and citizens passed a special levy to bring them back, Dill said, but that money can't be used for anything else.
However, sewer upgrades "are definitely going to be in our plan for Issue 2 funding next year."
The city is responsible for storm sewers; Mahoning County is responsible for the sanitary sewers.
Joseph Warino, Mahoning County sanitary engineer, and Andy D'Apolito, Mahoning County superintendent of operations, also attended the meeting to help answer citizens' questions and to provide information on the county's Backflow Control Program, which will provide up to $2,500 in matching funds to homeowners who install gate valves and sump pumps in their homes to eliminate basement flooding. For more information on the program, call (330) 793-5514.
kubik@vindy.com