STORMWATER STUDY
Ringgold looking for solutions after flooding at several downtown businesses
Ringgold council members have agreed to bring in a hydrology engineer to look at stormwater issues that caused several businesses to flood along Cleburne Street recently.
During the July 22 meeting, City Council members discussed trouble spots they would like to have evaluated and also considered the opinion of local attorney Mccracken Poston, who owns one of the buildings that suffered flood damage.
Poston believes the recent flooding issues are a result of a new building and parking lot construction that have taken place between Cleburne and Mountain streets near Ringgold City Hall.
During the citizen’s comments portion of the night’s agenda, Poston questioned the materials used to construct the parking lot and whether a retention pond should have been required for the property.
“The building I have and a lot of those buildings down there, nobody can remember when they flooded into the backs. The backs of the buildings are higher than the fronts,” Poston said. “I appreciate y’all looking into this, but we do have a problem and we can’t deny it.”
As far as the new construction goes, the city contends that the site’s parking lot was to be constructed with pervious materials, meaning the lot should allow water to percolate through in an attempt to slow down stormwater runoff and promote infiltration.
The use of pervious materials creates a scenario where a retention pond or reservoir isn’t mandated.
Poston contends that perhaps construction crews didn’t use the proper material, which is causing some of the flooding issues.
“I’m not sure that is a pervious parking lot. At least it’s not pervious enough to avoid the necessity of a retention pond,” Poston said.
Poston added that he even took a bottle of water and conducted a little test of how water traveled when poured on surface.
“There are obvious issues,” Poston said. “That building and all the new water that’s shedding off of it, a parking lot that’s no more pervious than this one (at City Hall) apparently by my simple experiment, and the drain that’s not even working. It’s brand new construction and the drain is sitting under an inch of water right now. There’s something that’s wrong – it’s (stormwater) all going downhill and that goes right into the backs of these buildings right here.”
Businesses like Caffeine Addicts, Trestle Side Antiques, and Ringgold Art and Frame were flooded after heavy rains befell the area on July 9.
During the following days, as business owners tried to sort out and clean up the damage, Mayor Nick Millwood and City Councilman Randall Franks went over to personally assist with the moving of furniture and inventory.
After discussion of the issue, Franks motioned to bring in an engineer in to evaluate, a motion that was unanimously approved 5-0.
“We have some issues that need to be looked at. While none of us are engineers, we can very easily get one to take a strong look at what’s being done,” Franks said. “It would be my suggestion and my motion that we bring our stormwater engineer on board to look at all these areas described — Cleburne Street, Nashville Street, Depot Street, Lafayette Street, Church Street, Lamar Street at Tiger Trail — and initially give us an indication or proposal of what it’s going to cost us for him to look at it, and then come back obviously once we approve that with suggestions on how this can be alleviated in the future.”
Moving forward, city officials agreed with Poston’s request that the affected business owners be a part of the conversation regarding potential solutions.
“I don’t see why not,” Mayor Millwood said. “I think it would be prudent for him to speak to you guys about it. I don’t have an issue with that.”
“Because we’ve observed the water and we know how much was in there,” Poston replied.
While the city won’t know what type of cost will be involved yet, council member Sara Clark stated she would like to look at records of what city engineers have worked on or reviewed in the past, saying that previous studies might mean less cost moving forward since engineers wouldn’t have to start from scratch.
“I think we can do it in that way and see where the gaps are and go from there with something new,” Clark said.