Village seeks ways to alleviate flooding

The panel's only recommendation thus far dealt with regulating development along the creek.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Village officials are exploring options for alleviating flooding problems that have plagued parts of the community.
Joe Mazur, village council president and a member of its Storm Water Advisory Team, said that one of the options is controlling the level of Lake Evans where water has flowed over the dam on North Lima Road.
"We can control flooding [in the village] a lot better if we get help with Lake Evans," he said.
The lake is owned by Aqua Ohio, a water supplier.
If the water level in the lake is lowered, it can accept more storm runoff, Mazur said. "If there's no water coming over the spillway, there's no problem at the library."
Water in library
Water from Yellow Creek got into the bookstore and meeting room of the Poland branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County in August 2004.
Al Sauline, vice president for government relations at Aqua Ohio and manager of its Struthers division, said he hadn't been approached by anyone from the village about the issue. But lowering the level of the lake could present problems for the water company.
"If we were to lower the level of the lake and there was no rainfall it would put us in a precarious position," he said. "We owe it to our water customers to provide drinking water for them."
Jim Swager, chairman of SWAT, an advisory body formed in January that makes recommendations to village council, said that though a lot of options have been bandied about, the panel has made only one recommendation to council.
Regulating development
That recommendation was that the village adopt an ordinance to regulate development along Yellow Creek. Council hasn't acted on that recommendation.
Mazur said that another option is creation of a retention/detention pond behind the former Sam's Club in Boardman. Much of the water flowing into Yellow Creek and into the village comes from Boardman, the councilman said.
Elaine Mancini, Boardman trustees chairwoman, said she hadn't been approached about such a pond and she declined to comment, saying she doesn't have enough information.
Gary Diorio of MS Consultants, which provides engineering services to Boardman, the village and several other communities, said a retention/detention pond has been discussed as a possible option.
"Someone would have to do a study," Diorio said. "It's just one idea that's been suggested."
Widening creek
Mazur has contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, requesting permission to widen Yellow Creek where it narrows near the library and to clean up what village officials have dubbed Trash Island.
It's a small raised area within the creek where debris collects, Mazur said.
Any use of machinery within a creek requires authorization from the Corps, he said. He's awaiting a response.
"If we clean out the creek and widen it, that wall that the library is building wouldn't be needed," the council president said.
Big wall
The library hired a Washingtonville contractor to build a $102,400 concrete, 31/2-foot-high, 2-foot-thick and 210-foot-long wall to keep water out.
The wall will start near the Main Street Bridge and will turn around a bend. Work on the wall started last month.