Home Obituaries Engineer’s office to assist Dunkirk with flooding problems

Engineer’s office to assist Dunkirk with flooding problems

0

DUNKIRK — A flooding issue on the northern edge of Dunkirk is causing the village to work with the Hardin County Engineer’s Office to find a solution.

The issue was brought forth at Monday’s council meeting by resident Bryon Halsey, who said the north end of Dunkirk on Main Street floods just about every time the village gets a “good, heavy rain.”

Its last notable flood was in July of 2017, he said.

After doing some research measuring the culverts that service the creek on the north side, Halsey concluded that the 60-inch culvert that sits to the east of U.S. 68 and runs alongside a house is flowing at only 42 percent capacity.

Halsey spoke about the issue with Hardin County Assistant Engineer Luke Underwood, who said he and his office were aware of the problem in that area.

“They don’t know when it happened and they don’t know when that culvert was put in,” Halsey said.

The area in question used to be an open ditch, according to Halsey, but was filled in and fitted with a 60-inch culvert.

Prepared to petition the repair himself, Halsey was told by Underwood that there is no grant money available for individuals.

The community, however, is eligible for grant funding should it choose to petition for the repair.

“When you petition that, the taxpayers are going to pay for this, that’s just the way it goes,” Halsey said.

“It doesn’t all come out of Dunkirk’s funds. Everybody that has any kind of water that runs into that – there’s over 1,000 acres that runs into that ditch, and that’s a lot of acres.”

Halsey was informed by Underwood that the plan to remedy the flooding in the area would be to replace the 60-inch culvert with one the same size as that which goes under the highway.

The anticipated cost for that project would be, estimating on the low side, around $97,000.

“The main problem (with that project) would be getting the foundation of the house shored up so it doesn’t collapse,” Halsey said, speaking of the home to the south of the culvert in question.

Mayor Terry Cramer and the village council agreed that it would be best to try to get Underwood to come speak with council about the issue during one of its upcoming meetings.

Also during the meeting, council:

– Waived the three-reading rule and approved an ordinance declaring a John Deere lawnmower owned by the village as unnecessary for municipal purposes and authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids for the sale of said property or to trade the mower in for replacement.

– Heard from Mayor Cramer that there are still some individuals in the village who are ignoring the ordinance that prohibits parking in between the sidewalk and the street.

In order to comply with the ordinance, the area being parked on must be covered with stone, which then has to be approved by the village.

– Scheduled a Finance Committee meeting for 2:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, with a Contract Committee meeting to follow.

– Was reminded that there is no second council meeting in December.

By TY THAXTON
Times staff writer

Load More In Obituaries

Leave a Reply