Trustees, officials meet to address flooding

Up to 20 homes in the development were flooded in 2003 and 2004.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- The summers of 2003 and 2004 brought severe flooding to some residents of the Canterbury Creek development, and township trustees are trying to fix the problem.
Trustees met Thursday with representatives of the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the village and offices of U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-17, of Niles, and Ted Strickland, D-6th, of Lisbon, in what is likely to be the first in a series of sessions.
"This is just the very beginning of the process," said Trustee Robert Lidle.
The 90-unit development was built in a flood plain about 12 years ago. It features retention ponds designed to control stormwater, but they're on private property.
Edwin Beach, township road superintendent, said the township required the developer to clean out the retention ponds before the township accepted the development in the early 1990s, but it hasn't been done since.
As a result, sediment has built up in the ponds, reducing the capacity and contributing to the flooding.
Because the ponds are on private property, the responsibility lies with the property owners. The township got an estimate for the work at $15,000, Lidle said.
Will try to install culvert
Beach said that the township applied last year for Issue 2 funding to install a box culvert at the creek to address the problem. That request was turned down, but the township plans to apply for it again, the road superintendent said.
Lidle said the flooding affects 15 to 20 of the homes in the development.
Curtis Meeder of the Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District said that if flood plains can be avoided for residential and commercial development, it would be a good public policy to avoid building in flood-prone areas.
Don Garver of the soil and water conservation district said there are policies being implemented to deal with new developments.
"But I don't have an answer for retroactive problems," he said.
Meeder suggested a hydrology study and a report of flooding frequency be done as a first step. There may be federal money that could go toward the costs, he said.