Proposed tax could pay to reduce street flooding

Evita Rowland spent Tuesday trying to dry out treasured family photographs and pack up her household.

She and her husband had planned on moving to Camden, Tenn., later this year. Last week's flood changed everything. While a real estate agent's sign is still in the front yard of the couple's home at 2254 S. Sherwood Drive, they are about to undertake an expensive renovation. Sewage poured into the couple's basement from a shower drain, while groundwater seeped in elsewhere.

The effects of the recent floods have made voters more aware of the the parks and storm-water tax on the April 8 ballot, said Tim Gramling, public works director for the city of Cape Girardeau.

The half-cent retail sales tax would support a bond issue for major capital improvements in the parks system and, for public works, pay for federally mandated storm-water regulation improvements, storm-water project maintenance and downtown floodwall system operations. Most of the tax would expire after 10 years. But one-eighth cent would be permanent and pay for operation costs.

Rowland said her home has never experienced a flood since she moved in nearly four years ago. Now she's one of the homeowners with piles of garbage on the front lawn, much of it pulled up from basements.

Some sodden belongings — books and stuffed animals — were jammed into trash bags. Other losses — furniture, appliances, electronics, colorful toys and patio furniture — were heaped in piles, waiting for today's special pickup.

The Rowlands called city hall and asked what can be done only to learn that it isn't the city's responsibility. But the reports of flooded basements are being used to update the city's high-water map.

Gramling said basement flooding was a separate issue from storm water, with one exception. Old underground clay tile pipes and drains that have cracks or holes may have taken on some of the storm water — it's a problem every city in the U.S. faces, he said.

Storm water is collected and guided through sewers from grates on the streets; sewage from dishwashers, showers and toilets travels along a separate system, he said. But older sewer systems develop openings in joints or in the pipes themselves.

"When you get as much rain as we got, it's not unusual to see that happen," he said, adding that even his basement has water damage from last week's storm.

Still, improvements and projects done over the last 15 to 20 years have minimized flood effects on people's lives, he said.

Town Plaza was spared from the kinds of flooding the city's west side experienced in the past, including a series of floods in 1973 that put the shopping center under nearly 5 feet of water. On May 15, 1986, the site was again waterlogged after 6.64 inches of rain fell. Retailers were enraged at the time because plans for reconfiguring the Cape LaCroix and Walker creeks had been dragging on for years. The 1986 disaster galvanized re-engineering to accommodate floodwaters. The Walker branch carried last week's rainwater — more than twice the amount that fell in 1986 — away from Town Plaza to the LaSalle retention basin in the city's northwest corner.

"Just that concrete channel probably saved Town Plaza from being completely destroyed," Gramling said.

He said the proposed parks and storm water tax, if approved, would pay to fix recurrent problems that threaten safety or have the potential to cause significant property damage.

More than half of the money would be spent on projects such as reducing street flooding by installing more storm sewer inlets. Creek banks that are eroding would be stabilized, detention basins would be improved and the 100-year-old brick tunnel that acts as a significant water conduit through the downtown area would be relined, Gramling said.

One project would be renovating the Howell Street bridge. Floods are so common there, gates were installed to making closing the road easier.

"We do have some creeks along parks where the banks are eroding, that do potential damage to parks," he said. "Those are high priority, or where you have one project that could impact one neighborhood."

He also cited the water retention basins: The tax would put a new flood monitor in the LaSalle retention basin. The monitor would be connected to the city's computer network.

"If water reaches a certain elevation, we know it's reaching a critical point," Gramling said.

That would give the city a small window of time to alert emergency responders to warn people at risk.

Two smaller retention basins would be upgraded. Arena Park has one basin. The Lisa Street basin, between Delwin and Randol streets, just a few blocks away from the Rowland's home, is the other.

Even so, with all improvements, Gramling points out that there are no guarantees against floods from historic amounts of rain, such as last week's storm.

"Nothing is designed to handle a complete inundation. ... We just experienced something very nontypical. There's not just a fix for it. Just like when the Mississippi River overflows. Does this means it's broken? It just means it got more water than it could handle."

Still, during a more typical rainstorm, improvements paid for the the tax initiative "could reduce the occurrences of those kinds of problems."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127