City staff examines drainage issues

Flooding problems associated with late June storms have prompted city staff to begin looking at ways to ensure the same problems won’t plague Siloam Springs in the future.

City Administrator Phillip Patterson said during a July 2 board of directors meeting that city staff are working on a sort of map that will detail all storm drains and pipes to begin crafting a rotating schedule for maintenance.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure drainage facilities are operating at full capacity and in the manner they were designed to,” Patterson said.

Public Works Director Steve Gorszczyk said the department has not only begun work to repair some problem areas around the city, but it continues to work on projects that have been slated for some time.

In response to the June storms that dropped an estimated 2.11 inches of rain in Siloam and an estimated 4.27 inches in Fayetteville, according to the National Weather Service, a drainage ditch that runs from 1901 W. Jefferson to 2118 W. Twin Springs has had overgrown brush removed and the slopes of the bank cleaned up, Gorszczyk said.

A detention pond that catches excess water for the Copper Leaf subdivision, located off N. Mount Olive Street, has been sloped toward drainage channels already in the area, Gorszczyk said. Drainage channels on the outlet side of the pond have also been cleaned, Gorszczyk said.

Gorszczyk said he’s also working with Patterson to address other drainage complaints associated with the pond.

Detention ponds built specifically for subdivisions are built “in order to not compound drainage downstream,” Gorszczyk said. “They’re put in to hold water back and release them slowly so everything downstream can keep up.”

In the event of June’s storms, the combination of rain fall and time worked against the city’s systems.

“It’s difficult for a lot of cities to design a drainage system for short duration storms that dump a lot of water,” Gorszczyk said. “Whether they’re drainage channels or detention ponds, they’re generally designed for 100-year storm events. When you see three inches of rain in an hour? That could be equivalent to a larger, overall storm event and our channels may not be sized for an event like that. It takes time to catch up.”

Time is also a factor when working on the department’s capital projects that have been in the works for almost a year.

Due to the approved 2013 vote to split a one cent sales tax between the city’s fire department, police department and public works department, Gorszczyk said Public Works could budget for something like the $300,000 project slated to repair drainage issues south of Tulsa Street. Or improve a drainage swale, or depression with ridges, near 207 Glenwood Place.

Gorszczyk said similar projects can be brought to the department’s attention, and filed for review and future work, via the fix it form on the city’s website, siloamsprings.com. Residents are encouraged to voice their concerns so the department can be aware of projects that may need to be budgeted for, Gorszczyk said.