By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
When hard rains hit, Steve Russell’s garage floods, as do three of his neighbors’ properties.
A new 10-year plan for stormwater management prepared by the city of Joplin offers a fix for that area that may help residents such as Russell and drain a swamp that afflicts motorists along Connecticut Avenue between 32nd and 37th streets during heavy rain.
Russell, 3322 S. Connecticut Ave., said after reading the plan for his neighborhood: “It’s needed. It’s a much bigger issue than just solving mine, but it could solve mine.”
That new plan picks up where a current one leaves off when the quarter-cent city sales tax for parks and stormwater projects expires in 2012. City officials are deciding whether to ask residents to renew the tax, and the city staff is laying the groundwork for that decision and for the possibility of the future vote.
The new master plan, crafted by the Joplin firm of Allgeier, Martin & Associates Inc. working with the city’s Public Works Department, recommends 36 projects plus maintenance at a total cost of $35.9 million.
The existing master plan has resulted in spending nearly $20.2 million for flood abatement and parks projects since the tax took effect in 2002, according to figures provided by the city’s finance director, Leslie Jones.
About half of that total went to stormwater drainage projects, including fixing Willow Branch in downtown Joplin and the current Joplin Creek flood-control work near Fourth Street and Murphy Boulevard.
Kurt Higgins, an engineer for Allgeier who was in charge of putting together the new master plan, delivered it to the Joplin City Council last week. He told the council that the current plan involved the largest projects related to flood damage in the city’s main commercial areas, and the new plan addresses smaller drainage issues that largely affect residential areas.
The largest single project in terms of cost in the new plan is building a regional water detention system in the area of 32nd Street and Arizona Avenue, estimated at $2 million. Next is a $1 million regional detention system for the area of 15th Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Other projects range from $9,000 to $668,000.
The plan would build in annual maintenance costs of the new systems.
The projects in the plan are ranked by priority, with the top one listed as building a regional detention pond somewhere around 15th Street and Murphy Boulevard, perhaps in Parr Hill Park. Higgins told the council that managing stormwater in that area would help reduce flooding that runs downhill toward Seventh Street and Illinois Avenue, which has flooded in heavy rains.
The flooding in Russell’s neighborhood is ranked third and is divided into two stages: $444,000 worth of projects between 32nd and 35th streets, and $350,000 worth between 35th and 37th streets.
In the past, the city has appointed panels of residents to examine plans for projects such as this, and to develop a recommendation on whether a tax should be posed and, if so, how much. Community groups also were impaneled to discuss the issues with voters.
Asked what steps the city would take this time, City Manager Mark Rohr said a work session of the council tonight for discussion of parks issues related to the tax is the next step in the procedure, “to be followed by more events to obtain public input.”
“Staff is meeting to review the previous effort to find out what was successful in determining other future steps,” Rohr said.
As for Russell’s property flooding, he said a member of the city’s public works staff talked to him last week about a possible short-term fix that might eliminate his problem or help him temporarily.
“I’m pleased with what they’re doing,” he said.
Downtown flooding
Before the current stormwater master plan was carried out, several downtown Joplin stores were flooded about every two years by water from Willow Branch. As a result of the work, the risk has been reduced to once about every 25 years, officials say.
