Waterlogged residents seek flood relief from council
After spending six hours pumping flood water from his basement on three occasions after recent heavy rains, Ron Herbel had had enough.
He slogged into the Hillsboro City Council meeting June 5 to ask council members to fix the drainage problems in his neighborhood, or help him clean up next time it rains.
In a community in which sudden rains can cause some residents to wonder if they need driver's licenses or boating permits, Herbel's house at 403 Floral Drive is but one example of drainage problems in Hillsboro.
The water also floods the yard and driveway at the home of Jerry and Mary Schmidt, who live next door at 401 Floral Drive.
"I get the biggest brunt of it," Herbel said. "If I had been gone last time, my whole basement would have been under water. My wife worked from 6 p.m. until about 1:30 in the morning before we got through."
With sudden downpours, rain water flows from a nearby field, gains momentum through the West Winds subdivision, overflowing the banks of a shallow ditch behind Herbel's home. At the same time, runoff water pours in from overflowing drainage ditches on nearby D Street.
With torrents coming together from so many directions, Floral Drive is like a river.
"I'm tired of pumping water out," Herbel said.
The council, apparently not eager to take Herbel up on his offer to help him out with buckets and pails, agreed it was time to deal the drainage problems.
Mayor Delores Dalke said the problems date back to 1993-94, when the now-defunct developer of West Winds was allowed to build without following city drainage guidelines.
"It was political," Dalke replied, and then added, "I want everybody around this table to remember that the next time you have a developer come in here that doesn't want to obey the rules, I want you to remember what these people are here telling us.
"I want this all in the minutes, what their complaints are now, because we have another developer coming in and trying to skip through some of the steps."
The mayor asked city engineer Bob Previtera to survey the entire area around West Winds and come up with a final solution. Previtera said, "We need to take a harder look at it, to see how it all fits together."
With the developer of the West Winds properties long gone, Dalke said the council would need to figure out who should pay to fix the larger drainage problems in the affected area, which includes the new Hillsboro Family Aquatics Center, and the American Legion hall.
"Will it be the people in the development, or is it going to be the city at-large?" Dalke said.
Until the problems are fixed, Mary Schmidt asked, "If there's damage to our house due to this runoff, why should we be expected to pay for it, when it's the city's responsibility to take care of the problem?"
Dalke encouraged the Schmidts to fill out a formal complaint form, to be forwarded to the city's insurance company.
"We do not determine liability," Dalke said. "The liability insurance company does that."
Council member Shane Marler, who also has heard complaints about similar drainage problems in east Hillsboro and in the Willow Glen subdivision in the southwest corner of the city, said it was time to help residents stop treading water.
"With the monsoon rains we've had recently, it makes it more apparent that we need to take a more aggressive approach," Marler said.
In other business:
— With his first official day of work still more than a month away, newly-hired city administrator Larry Paine appeared at the council meeting, bearing a corrected copy of the city's 2007 annual budget, which was rejected and returned from Topeka with red marks all over it.
Paine, who has taught budget seminars for the League of Kansas Municipalities, fixed several mistakes the state had found in the budget, and a few mistakes the state had missed, he said.
"It was a learning experience for sure," Pain said. "Hopefully it doesn't happen again."
Paine added that even though Topeka had suggested he start over from scratch, he didn't.
"I did it this way because I've done it before this way, and I don't think there'll be any problem," he said. "I'm pretty confident that we can resolve it if there are questions. It should be good to go."
After a final public hearing on the corrected budget, it was approved by the council. It now will be sent to the Marion County Clerk's office, then forwarded to Topeka.
Paine, currently the city manager in Concordia, will begin his new job in Hillsboro on July 23. Paine has promised the city of Concordia that he will help prepare its 2008 budget.
And he already has begun work on his new city's budget.
"Larry has already been down and met with all the department heads to discuss getting ready to do next year's budget, and we should be well on our way," Dalke said.
— The estimated cost of cleaning up the fire damaged AMPI building continues to go down.
After an eye-popping initial bid of $440,000, the council received a bid from Jantz Construction to do the same work for $190,000.
Sometimes it pays to advertise, and sometimes it pays to read them.
While at the airport, Mayor Dalke saw a sign on the door of a pickup for Advance Catastrophe Technologies, Inc.. A few days later, she saw the same company's truck in a picture on the front page of a local newspaper. The company was cleaning up a hotel after recent heavy rains. Figuring it was no fluke, she called the Wichita-based company, which submitted a bid for $72,000 for the AMPI cleanup.
The bid does not include repairing the roof (estimated at $35,000).
Council member Bob Watson had said it could be cheaper to tear the building down than to clean it up, but the new bid changed his mind.
"If we can clean the deal up for $72,000 by a professional firm, that seems like a fairly easy decision," Watson said.
In a related matter, a second bid to remove asbestos from the AMPI building is expected soon. The preliminary figure to remove the hazardous material is $3,500.
The council postponed action on the AMPI building until after the school bond referendum.
"Depending on how the bond election goes will determine whether we need to hurry up with this or take our time," Dalke said.
— The mayor received unanimous approval to finalize the sale to Tabor College 40 acres of city-owned land directly south of Reimer Field, for the proposed athletic complex.
"To be a good citizen," Dalke said the property was sold for $35,862.16, the same price it paid for the property in 1989.
— Mayor Dalke announced that Congressman Jerry Moran had accepted an invitation to be the guest speaker at this year's July 4th Eve celebration, to be held July 3 at Schaeffler House Museum.
— Anticipating its need for up-to-date statistics on household income to submit when applying for grants for a new fire station, the council authorized consultant Rose Mary Saunders to begin the process of surveying homes protected by the Hillsboro Fire Department, including Risley, Lehigh, Liberty, and part of Menno townships. Saunders said data specific to Hillsboro could be used when applying for grants for street, sewer, and other projects.
— The council accepted the bid from Bank of the West to finance
(at 4.67 percent interest) the lease purchase of a new bucket truck for the electric department. The cost to replace the old truck, which had become unsafe to operate, is estimated at $135,000. The city will draw $42,000 of the payment from its capital improvements fund, and the remainder will be financed.
— Approved a pay estimate to the following contractors and advisers for work on the ongoing Adams Street renovation project: $90,317.84 to APAC-Kansas; $5,460 to Reiss & Goodness Engineers; and $657.23 to Ranson Financial Consultants.
— The council heard a progress report on the Adams Street project from city engineer Bob Previtera, who said most of the concrete work was done, and, weather permitting, asphalt would be laid sometime this week.
"Hopefully in two or three weeks we should pretty much have [the project] squared away," he said.
— The council received a cost estimate of $36,402.40 from APAC-Kansas to pave the dirt road that runs east of the Hillsboro Family Aquatics Center off D Street, goes west around the pool to the Hillsboro Sports Complex. When the road is dry, dirt and sand blow into the pool. When wet, the road is muddy and rutted.
The council would like to have the work done while APAC's paving equipment is in town, but put the project on hold until the city engineer could survey drainage problems in the area.
