City may spend $5.1M to address Arena Park flooding

The city of Cape Girardeau may spend more than $5 million to control stormwater at Arena Park.

The project is estimated at $5.1 million, but it could cost more if the project is expanded because of the new police station being constructed adjacent to the park, city officials said.

City staff have listed it as the top stormwater project that could be funded if voters approve extension of the park/stormwater sales tax in 2018.

Assistant public works director Stan Polivick said there is good reason to address the risk of flooding along Arena Creek that borders the park's eastern edge.

"We have been fortunate that we have not had a major flood when the SEMO District Fair is going on," he said.

Polivick said the area has been hit by flash floods in the past. In 2013, heavy rains put "two feet of water in the park."

"It flooded the park in just a few minutes," he said.

If that had happened during fair week in September, it could have wreaked havoc, Polivick said.

The small creek can't handle a huge volume of water from upstream.

City officials have considered several options. At this point, the plan is to keep the creek open but install box culverts that would pipe excess water under some of the Arena Park ballfields and empty into Cape LaCroix Creek on the park's south end.

Water already runs through a pipe beneath the grassy area south of Maria Louise Lane. Polivick said it would be too costly to pipe the whole length of Arena Creek through the park because of federal and state environmental regulations, he said.

But city officials may look at installing a stormwater pipe along the east side of the site of the new police station as part of the overall Arena Creek improvement project,

The Arena Park project is one of four top-priority stormwater projects proposed by city staff.

The others are storm-sewer improvements in the Good Hope and Christine streets and Plaza Way neighborhood, the Hopper Road and Kingshighway area, and on Boxwood Drive.

Polivick said the Good Hope project could cost $3.8 million. The Hopper Road project is estimated at $530,000, and installing a new culvert in the Boxwood Drive area would cost about $190,000, he said.

City officials continue to study what stormwater projects to include in the tax proposal.

Polivick said the city hopes to finalize plans within the next several months.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641