The Blytheville Streets and Drainage Committee is working to prioritize a list of the numerous drainage problem areas in the city.
Tuesday night, Streets and Drainage Committee chairwoman Carol White said the board needs a task force to develop a comprehensive drainage plan and later post the plan where residents may stay updated on the various projects.
Expected to provide some insight on the hot topic, Bob Chatman of Miller-Newell Engineers will be in town Friday morning to tour the city and examine the drainage areas. City officials will meet at 10 a.m. Friday at the mayor's office for the tour, which is open to the public. Chatman, along with Brad Davis of SSR Engineering, will be back in town next Tuesday for the 3 p.m. Airport and Utilities Committee meeting, which precedes the 5 p.m. City Council meeting.
Public Works director Rick Mosley said Lee Circle is the area most in need of attention, followed by South Elm and McHaney.
Councilman R.L. Jones added Dogwood, Brawley, Stuart, Sales and Jackson are other areas that should be high on the list, though not the only ones that need to be addressed.
A 20-year veteran of the city's governing body, Councilman Mylas Jeffers has seen first hand the drainage issues on Lee Circle, having lived in the area since 1973.
He said there has always been a flooding problem in the area.
"We're at the point of we've got to get it fixed," Jeffers said. "I've said that, and my voice apparently hasn't been loud enough to be in the priority bunch. But I've said that. I talk to (Blytheville Mayor) Barry (Harrison) all the time about the Lee Circle problem. I know about it because I see it every time. He tells me, he's got projects going over here, and he's got projects going over there. Now that we've got more than two voices ringing in the mayor's ear, well perhaps we're going to get some relief. The more I talk to Pee Wee (Kenneth Ellis) and to you (Mosley) the simpler that problem gets."
Ellis and Mosley said they know the problem areas and how to fix them, but it boils down to money and engineering.
White said the city must devise a plan to "get the best bang for our buck," and focus on areas that have suffered with drainage problems for years.
"The City Council is here to look and see how we can bring relief to the areas that are a part of the city," White said.
Mosley noted the major problem is the outlying ditches.
White said she contacted the Army Corps of Engineers in Memphis Tuesday, telling the agency that Ditch 27, which dumps into Little River, was clogged likely from beaver dams and limbs. White said the Corps planned to get back with her by the end of the week.
"I told him we're in a crisis mode," she said.
Mosley said the January ice storm has contributed to drainage problems, which are worse than previous years.
"The biggest problem is all these little limbs that came down during the ice storm have worked their way through the drainage system, and they've just lined these banks," he said. "It just gives these beavers (a place) to build dams on. These ditches are dammed up (and holding water)."
White noted residents have told her flooding is not new.
"The reason I'm hearing so much is because of what happened at the last City Council meeting," she said, referring to the Council agreeing to allocate money to fix drainage problems in the Wedgewood, Briarcrest and Broadway area. "When it didn't come back to this committee and that money was appropriated to relieve a certain area. When that goes in the paper, people say, well gee, mine hasn't been done in 16 years. What we're looking at is about communicating."
Mosley said the last drainage projects were in 2000, when the city spent $1 million on Harmon, Charlene, Thompson, part of McHaney and others.
Jones noted the bonds will retire next year between May and June, then new money will be available for other projects.
"We prioritized the streets that we were going to do," Jones said of the reasoning to fix drainage in those particular areas during 2000. "We had to do so much in this ward and so much in that ward. We couldn't do it all in one ward because that wouldn't be fair to the other people that need relief."
Jones noted the next step is listening to Chatman Friday and Tuesday, then when the bonds retire the city can do the most needed projects.
He invited anyone with drainage concerns to Friday's tour/and or Tuesday's meetings.
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com