Board discusses best way to use drainage funds
By Randy Bell
Clinton’s Board of Aldermen doesn’t have a lot of money to work with this year as it tries to tackle the city’s drainage problems. Only $300,000 was set aside in the City budget to deal with flooding issues.
While the Board and Mayor Will Purdie agree that amount is not anywhere close to what it would take to make a major dent in the problems, there had been some sentiment expressed to use the money to at least make a start – to show some visual progress in the drainage battle. However, at the Board’s January 5 work session, a consensus seemed to be developing to spend some of the money this year behind the scenes, on preliminary design and engineering to prepare for some significant drainage work, which could be funded in the next budget year.
“I certainly think that would be a smart use of the funds,” says Purdie. “There is a feeling, a good one, and I relate to it, that we would like to be able to show boots on the ground [drainage] work as soon as possible. That being said, obviously we have limited funds. We have to figure out the way to make them go the farthest, and I think that this approach will really let us do the most with what we’ve got.”
Consulting City Engineer Bill Owen has given the Board a list of eleven drainage projects to consider. Purdie says floodwaters in yards is a concern, but keeping houses dry has to be a higher priority.
“Absolutely. We want to do what we can to address drainage and flooding in all its forms, but the most serious [problems], of course, are where water is getting into the homes,” said Purdie. “And I would think, certainly, those will take priority as we start looking at where to start on these projects.”
The mayor has pointed out before that Clinton could spend its entire budget many times over and still not fix all of the city’s drainage problems.
“Each project will be tremendously expensive, unfortunately,” Purdie says. “It’s ‘How do you eat the elephant?’ One bite at a time. You’ve got to pick somewhere and start.”
