Storm sewers to the rescue?

A resident says he and his wife live in constant fear of more flooding.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Lou and Millie Naples of Aylesboro Avenue hope a project to install storm sewers offers some relief for their water woes.
They moved into their house, which doesn't have a basement, in 2000. Three years later, it flooded twice.
They had to tear out carpeting and lost furniture and other possessions.
Last month, when heavy rains again deluged the Mahoning Valley, the couple worried it would happen again.
The water covered their front yard, obscuring part of a fire hydrant that stands at the road.
"By the grace of God, the rain stopped," Naples said. "The water was 3 to 4 inches from our front door."
Last week, Mahoning County commissioners selected a project to install 425 feet of storm sewers on Aylesboro west of Market Street for Community Development Block Grant funding. The grant is for $82,000.
Commissioners are expected to apply by July 14 to the Ohio Department of Development for the federal money for the projects, scheduled for construction in 2007.
Larry Wilson, township road superintendent, pointed out the availability of the grant to trustees, and Trustee Kathy Miller gathered information from Aylesboro residents to include on the grant application.
Naples credited Miller for her work in trying to help alleviate flooding.
"We live in constant fear every time we see a black cloud," he said. "We're not living; it's existing."
The couple keeps cement blocks and paint cans ready to set their furniture and other belongings upon.
Blaming Lake Newport
Naples believes that Lake Newport in Mill Creek Park is a big part of the problem.
"Lake Newport has needed dredging for some time," Naples said.
He claims the lake is full of sediment and won't take more water, causing the water to back up and cause flooding.
Carol Potter, Mill Creek MetroParks marketing and development director, disagrees.
"It's almost like an urban myth now" that Lake Newport is the cause of flooding problems, she said.
She pointed to increased development and its accompanying roofs and pavement as a contributor. Water runs off those surfaces, particularly during heavy rain in a short time.
"It's the watershed's problem; it's not the lake's problem," Potter said. Once the lake is full, it's full, she added.
The park has dredged smaller bodies of water in the past, but that proved to be a short-term fix.
"One storm event and all of the rocks and sediment were back," Potter said.
In the late 1990s, Mill Creek Park commissioners voted to turn the southern end of Lake Newport into a wetlands to slow sediment flow to the rest of the lake.
Cost was one component in deciding to go the wetlands route instead of dredging. Engineers in the late 1990s estimated the cost of dredging at several million dollars.
The process also would take about 10 years, Potter said.
"The wetlands takes a whole lot more water than the lake did," Potter said.
What has helped
The park district's recent land acquisitions actually will help keep flooding in the area from worsening, she added.
The park bought 256 acres between Western Reserve and Calla roads in Beaver Township, the former Paradise Fish Farm, and are turning the property into the Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary.
The park also is in the process of buying the former Orvets Sod Farm, which is about 303 acres. That property lies east of Tippecanoe Road and north of Western Reserve.
The plan is to keep those lands mostly natural.
Grants and donations from foundations were used for both purchases.
The park also owns land south of U.S. Route 224 in the township, including Hitchcock Woods that's undeveloped, which provides an area for water to be absorbed.