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Poland officials try to secure funding to fix flooding issue
POLAND
Township trustees have decided to move forward with the process of trying to get funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission to repair drainage systems in Canterbury Creek, a development off Dobbins Road that has faced flooding problems for more than 20 years.
“The bottom line is we just gave ourselves a chance. We’re in the ball game,” said Trustee Eric Ungaro. “It’s definitely a worthy project. It’s not like it’s just affecting one or two people. It’s a project that’s affecting 100 homes.”
Ungaro, along with residents of the development, said safety is the No. 1 concern.
“The flooding prevents emergency vehicles from getting in and out,” said Dana Balash, who lives on the corner of Cobblers Run and Hunters Hill. “We’ve had some issues where people can’t drive down the streets, people can’t get to their homes, people can’t get out of their driveways, people are stranded in their own neighborhood.”
Balash, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2001, said the streets fill with water after heavy rain, preventing vehicles from getting in and out of the single entrance that connects the development to Dobbins Road.
“When we get torrential rains, and very hard rains, within a short amount of time — within a half hour, we could have as much as a foot of water in the streets.”
“It’s not an everyday thing, but when it does happen ... the main concern is you cannot get safety vehicles in and out of there. It shuts the development down,” said Jack Walters, president of the development’s homeowners association. “The only thing you could get into that development is a rowboat. It’s ridiculous.”
Walters said water in basements is another issue, one that has affected his own home. He has had up to a foot of water in his basement before.
Township trustees unanimously voted at a meeting Aug. 26 to allocate $100,000 of township funds to contribute to fixing the drainage system if the Ohio Public Works Commission approves the application for the project.
The total cost of the first phase of the project, which is in the pre-application stage of the process, is $375,000. The OPWC would cover the remaining $275,000.
For the pre-application for the OPWC District 6 grant, residents had to fill out questionnaires about flooding issues, said David Bakalar, project engineer for Thomas Fok & Associates, the engineering firm that designed the project.
“We have other houses with yard flooding, but the critical ones are the in-house flooding,” Bakalar said. He said 13 people filled out the questionnaire about in-house flooding.
Phase one of the project would be to replace twin pipes that cross under Cobblers Run on the west side of the street.
The second phase, which is not included in the pre-application, would be to replace twin pipes from Cobblers Run to a detention pond in the area. The total project area is about 350 feet long.
OPWC grants are decided based on a point system, with different scenarios earning different numbers of points.
Sept. 5 is the deadline for the pre-application to the District 6 Public Works Integrating Committee, which is the committee that makes recommendations to the OPWC. Bakalar said the township should hear back about this step in the process in October and November.
“The trustees have been tremendous through this,” Balash said. “We know there’s a lot of red tape we have to go through. But we’re just keeping our fingers crosses that there’s something we can do to alleviate the problem.”