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| Abingdon Aldermen to Study Plan to Help Homeowners With Chronic Flooding |
Property owners in Abingdon who feel like their fighting a losing battle with flooding might get some help fixing the problem.
Mayor Roger Stegall during Tuesday night's city council meeting discussed the possibility of a partnership between the city and the public that could cover some of the cost associated with making improvements to properties that are frequently flooded. Stegall says the city might want to get involved in a program in response to numerous Abingdon homeowners' basements being overcome by water and sewage during last spring's heavy rainfall.
Abingdon public works superintendent Kirt Links and wastewater operator Larry Lawson talked about programs that are in place in Geneva and Urbana that Abingdon could use as a guide. Links and Lawson preferred the Geneva program because it provided a diagram that shows how to correct the problem.
Links says he and Lawson think they've figured out what's causing the flooding.
"We're suspecting they have footing drains laying around the perimeter of their house," Links said. "It very well could possibly be tied to the sanitary sewer. It's basically making its way to our sewer...raising the level in our sanitary sewer where it's flooding basements out there."
Some of the worst flooding is on the west side of the city. Lawson says a small subdivision in that part of town is especially bad.
The matter has been assigned to the streets committee to determine if the city should start a program and things like how much the city would reimburse a homeowner, the amount of money to budget out of the sewer fund and the number of property owners the city could help. The committee will then make a recommendation to the city council. |
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| 01 21 10 by Newsroom |
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