CANFIELD Council looks for data on flooding
Storm sewers in some city neighborhoods are designed for 10-year storms.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- City council is seeking more information on projects designed to help protect the community from flooding.
On Wednesday, council asked city Manager Charles Tieche to determine the costs and effects of expanding storm sewers and creating retention ponds in some neighborhoods.
Council also asked Tieche to find out if it could help pay for the projects by increasing storm-sewer fees charged to residents and business owners.
The neighborhoods targeted for flooding projects are around Fairview Avenue, Neff Drive and Hilltop Boulevard. MS Consultants, a Youngstown engineering firm, recently recommended in a report that the city expand storm-sewer capacity or create retention ponds in those neighborhoods.
Tieche met with council for three hours Wednesday night to discuss the report, which was commissioned in the wake of flooding this summer.
"The decision-making process on these things isn't just, 'We're going to fix it in your neighborhood,'" Tieche said. "They are not easy solutions and they are not inexpensive."
Created revenue
Council has paid for some past storm-sewer work using revenue created by a $1 per month fee charged for each residential structure in the city. Owners of businesses and commercial structures in the city also are charged a storm-sewer fee based on the size of their buildings.
Tieche said he is working to determine how much council could raise to help pay for flooding projects if it increases the storm-sewer fee. State and federal officials have said they don't have much money to help fund projects designed to protect against flooding problems in local communities.
Council also wants to know if some of the projects will remove water from one neighborhood only to dump it in another neighborhood downhill or downstream.
Canfield was among the local communities that experienced flooding when more than 10 inches of rain fell on the Mahoning Valley in July. The storms that passed through the area that month included one that was considered a 50-year storm by meteorologists.
A 50-year storm is a storm of such magnitude that it happens only once every 50 years.
Tieche noted that the storm sewers in the neighborhoods targeted for flooding projects are designed to handle the rain from a 10-year-storm.
hill@vindy.com