mmarincic posted on March 11, 2011 08:05
In response to the continued flooding in Findlay, the city and county engineers are working with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and an engineering firm from Cleveland to create a plan to reduce flood effects.
They hope to present the plan at the ACE headquarters in Washington, D.C. by the end of 2011. From there, the next step will be getting the funding needed from Congress to enact the plan.
"There would be earthen levees (grass-covered dirt mounds), concrete flood walls by North Main Street and the river and a diversion channel for Eagle Creek," Tony Iriti, former president of the dissolved Northwest Ohio Flood Mitigation Partnership, said.
According to Mayor Pete Sehnert, the diversion of Eagle Creek could reduce flooding by three feet, but there are possible negative effects for Putnam County, which is also involved in the project.
"Ottawa is west of us and we want to get the water out of our city, but we don’t want to make it go any faster down the river to them," Sehnert said. "There would have to be a retention area somewhere."We can’t just think of ourselves; we have to consider the people downstream from us.”
However, once the plan is worked out, it could provide additional benefits beyond just controlling flooding.
"We're going to coordinate with the park district and create more recreational opportunities for the citizens by building bike paths and jogging trails on the levees," Iriti said.
Sehnert hopes that the levees, along with the other measures, will be enough to minimize flood damage.
"We can’t completely eliminate the problem of flooding, but we can prepare for what we think will be the worst," Sehnert said. "The main thing is just that we do something.”