CC Commissioners meet with Bucyrus Mayor about storm water retention

John A. Lizotte

Craw­ford County Com­mis­sion­ers meet with Bucyrus City Mayor Roger Moore (cen­ter) to dis­cuss storm water runoff in the area around the fair­grounds. Moore says, “We need to bring every­one together on this.”

By John A. Lizotte

Inquirer Cor­re­spon­dent

The Craw­ford County Com­mis­sion­ers met with Bucyrus City Mayor Roger Moore, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Fair Board, and San­i­tary Engi­neer Lyn Makeever on Wednes­day, Jan. 18, to dis­cuss cre­at­ing a storm water reten­tion pond on the fair grounds.

Mayor Moore explained to the com­mis­sion­ers and the fair board that in years of heavy rain, the storm water runoff from the fair­grounds and sur­round­ing area is greater than the storm water sys­tem in that area can han­dle. This results in flood­ing around the area of Sher­wood Drive.

As Mayor Moore explained, “We need to bring every­one together on this to see what can be done. We need to include the city, the county, and the fair board. Let’s make this our project from the get-go.”

The Fair Board is more than will­ing to work­ing with the city and county to put a reten­tion pond on the fair­grounds. Their only con­cern is the exact loca­tion of the pond, and how it might affect their park­ing areas.

The first sug­ges­tion was to place the reten­tion pond in the south­west cor­ner of the fair­grounds near the cur­rent park­ing area. Although this is the low­est spot on the prop­erty, it may present a prob­lem to locate the reten­tion basin here because the storm sewer sys­tem in that area is closer to the sur­face than what would be optimum.

The dis­cus­sion then cen­tered on the south­east cor­ner of the prop­erty. Although this area is higher in ele­va­tion, it would allow for a deeper reten­tion pond, wouldn’t affect any grounds that are cur­rently being used, and due to its ele­va­tion it would be eas­ier to tie into the storm sewer system .

Com­mis­sioner Ver­mil­lion offered to inves­ti­gate the pos­si­bil­ity of apply­ing for a grant from the State of Ohio under the Local Gov­ern­ment Inno­va­tion Fund. The next dead­line for appli­ca­tions is March 1, and the groups hope to be able to apply at that time.

In the spirit of coop­er­a­tion, the Mayor said the city can start the pre­lim­i­nary fea­si­bil­ity stud­ies. The com­mis­sion­ers will begin inves­ti­gat­ing the grant process. The Fair Board is will­ing to assist the process how­ever they can.

Once the pre­lim­i­nary stud­ies of cur­rent run-off amounts, storm water capac­ity, and the best loca­tion for the reten­tion pond are com­pleted, the three groups will meet again.

Posted by Staff Reports on Jan 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.