Residents discuss flooding

The city needs to gather proof that those in the 2nd Ward have suffered losses.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- Mary Hudak said she has two rivers running through her property: one on each side of her Camvet Drive house, during periods of wet weather.
She and her neighbors said the water comes so high and so fast that it runs through their basement windows and floods their cellars.
The problem starts when storm drains on Struthers-Liberty Road are unable to handle the runoff and a large pond forms, said Geri Zinghini, also of Camvet Drive.
The pond overflows and comes down through the properties like a waterfall, she said.
It's stories like that the city needs to document in an effort to secure a state grant to help alleviate 2nd Ward flooding problems, said Mayor John Dill.
The grant program is very competitive, he said.
Dill called a town hall meeting Wednesday to ask residents hit by flooding to provide that documentation. More than 30 people attended the session.
Chronic problem
Tom Baron of Dumont Avenue said he's had three or four floods in recent years. One came just two months after he replaced a carpet from a previous flood, he said, noting he had $12,000 in damages but his insurance company covered only $5,000.
He said he's just spent an additional $3,000 to make improvements trying to control flooding around his home.
Some residents said their insurance companies wouldn't cover any of their damages.
Baron asked if cleaning the storm sewer lines would help.
John Evan of ES & amp; C International of Youngstown, the city's engineering consultant, said it might help with the neighborhood problem but could cause flooding elsewhere downstream.
The problem is that the sewer lines are inadequate to handle the flow, he said. Even building new lines won't completely solve the problem, he told the crowd, explaining there is no way to build for every scenario that might occur.
May try again for grant
The city sought a $364,000 state grant last year to put in some new sewer lines and catch basins in the Almasy Drive/Carlton Avenue area and tie them into a new, second storm line proposed for Kendall Street.
Dill said Campbell narrowly missed getting the funding and has a chance to submit a new application by Dec. 4.
He and Evan told the crowd that any documentation of flooding they might have -- pictures, insurance claims or even written statements of loss -- will support the application.
The documentation should be sent to the mayor's office by Nov. 15.
Evan said the project is the same as proposed last year, although the application might have to ask for slightly more money because of increases in construction costs.
The city will also have to come up with a match of at least $45,000, money Dill said Campbell will have when it is needed.
Building a retention basin to control runoff, perhaps off Almasy or Struthers-Coitsville Road, is a possible project, Evan said.
Flooding extends beyond the 2nd Ward, but that is the worst area and the city's No. 1 priority right now, the mayor said.
"We need your help. We need that documentation," Dill told the crowd.
gwin@vindy.com