The city is teetering dangerously close to losing nearly $3 million in federal grant funds to improve drainage in Northside neighborhoods prone to flooding.
As far as Mayor Keith Gaskin is concerned, the money is already gone after the council refused to even discuss accepting the grant at its meeting Tuesday.
“We just won’t receive the grant,” Gaskin said during his regular press conference Wednesday at City Hall. “… I would say this one’s dead.”
The city applied for The Army Corps of Engineers Section 592 Grant to fund almost $4 million in stormwater channel improvements east of Columbus Brick, City Engineer Kevin Stafford said.
Plans were to clean out and add concrete lining to an earthen ditch that runs down the east side of the brickyard, as well as build a detention pond to catch water that is now parts of 21st, 22nd and 23rd streets, and 23rd Avenue, he said. The detention pond would release water slowly into two basins.
“It’s an area that’s had repeat flooding, and we can point to homes that have had flooding in them,” Stafford told The Dispatch on Wednesday.
Stafford first presented this plan to the council during a work session earlier this year and brought it again Tuesday for approval.
The grant requires a 25% match from the city, close to $1 million, which Stafford suggested Tuesday could come from next year’s internet use tax collections. Those can only be spent for roads, bridges and drainage projects.
In order to accept the grant, the council must commit to the match and identify how to pay it.
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard, whose ward contains the project area, moved to accept the grant. His motion died without a second.
“I think it would have been a wise decision to move forward with it,” Gaskin said during his press conference. “…The majority of the council felt the amount of money we would receive with the grant was not worth the level of the match.”
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who represents Ward 2, called the match amount “just staggering” when speaking Wednesday to The Dispatch. He criticized Gaskin and Stafford for placing the item on Tuesday’s agenda without more discussion.
“If you are going to put something out there, you ought to know where your votes (are),” Mickens said. “Kevin knows how this game is. … That should have been brought up again before it got on the agenda.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene also balked at the “hefty match,” telling The Dispatch the city needs “more bang for our buck.”
“When you spend $1 million on a grant … we ought to solve more problems than that,” he said.
Greene worries solving the problem for those neighborhoods would create more flooding issues downstream.
Stafford said the detention pond would alleviate Greene’s concern.
“The way this would be designed, we’re not going to put any more water downstream than is currently going there,” Stafford said. “… If we were just creating brand new ditches and not the detention pond, I’d agree with him. (You’d be) moving water too quick downstream, and if downstream is not ready to receive it, then you’re moving a problem from one area to the next area. But when you introduce the detention pond, you’re now controlling the release.”
It’s technically a month or so before the council must commit to the match or lose the grant. Mickens said he’s willing to discuss it again at a work session, where the council can better hash out the details and whether the match is worth it.
“I’m not saying that the work don’t need to be done,” Mickens said. “Those folks need some relief over there from the flooding. We understand that. We are very much aware of it. … Still, for that amount of money, we need to have some serious dialogue.
“I’m not saying it’s dead,” he added. “It just died out (Tuesday) night. Stuff can always be brought back up.”
Gaskin, though not optimistic, would like the council to revisit the issue. Losing the grant would be a “missed opportunity,” he said.
“There’s always hope, right?” he said. “I wish they would reconsider. I was disappointed there wasn’t a second (to the motion Tuesday), so we could at least have more discussion about it.”
Beard did not return calls or messages for comment.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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