City To Consider New Flood Plan

FARMINGTON —The city will look to a new drainage plan to help stop flooding in Meadowsweet subdivision after it could not come to an agreement on an easement with a property owner in the area, Mayor Ernie Penn told City Council members last week.

The council approved a request to pay $37,250 to Olsson Associates to revise the original plans and draw up a new drainage improvement design.

The new contract is in addition to the $35,000 the city paid Olsson for the first plan.

“We’ve wasted a year of our time trying to solve the drainage problem on Garland McKee,” Mayor Ernie Penn said at the May 13 council meeting.

City Attorney Steve Tennant added, “We made them one heck of an offer for a lousy easement. It’s ridiculous.”

The city offered $40,000 to property owner Ethel McKee, represented by her sons, Neil Barnes and Les Barnes, for an easement that was about one acre in size. The city wanted an easement of pasture land to improve and widen the water channel that flows behind houses on Rosebay Lane in Meadowsweet subdivision off Garland McKee Road.

Tennant said city officials put in a lot of time with the Barnes brothers this past year, redesigned the plans several times to their specifications and had the papers ready to be signed for the easement. But the offer fell through when it came time to sign the papers.

The city then looked at the possibility of getting the land through eminent domain. Some of the easement was in the county, and the county would not condemn the land, Tennant said.

The city held a public meeting a year ago to provide information about its proposed drainage improvement plan to stop flooding on Rosebay Lane.

For normal drainage, water comes down the mountain off Garland McKee, goes through culverts under the road, takes a sharp left turn into a drainage ditch along the street and then goes into a creek running behind the houses on Rosebay.

During major storm events, water flows over Garland McKee, going down Rosebay Lane in Meadowsweet Subdivision, flooding houses on the street.

The original design was to replace the existing culverts under the road with three box culverts, to rebuild and raise the road by two feet and to improve and widen the creek behind the houses to help slow down water flow.

Chris Brackett with Olsson said the new plan, which has not been finished, will realign Garland McKee Road so that it goes east of the Washington Water Authority building and then Ts into the existing road. The old road will then be made into a ditch.

According to Brackett, the city will still need an easement from the Barnes but it will be pasture land that is within the city limits.

In other business, the council voted 6-2 to approve an ordinance that sets forth certain regulations for the sale of alcohol, beer and wine for on-premise consumption. The council also voted 6-2 to approve an emergency clause for the ordinance.

Tennant explained that while alcohol sales are allowed in the city of Farmington due to a local option election in 2016, establishments cannot sell alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption because of a 2017 state law, unless they have a private club permit.

The 2017 law says cities located in a county that allows the manufacture and sale of alcohol can authorize the sale of on-premise consumption with an ordinance.

With the new ordinance, Tennant said, establishments can apply for a mixed-drink permit. A mixed-drink permit also allows establishments to purchase alcohol on the wholesale level.

Council members Keith Lipford and Brenda Cunningham voted against the ordinance.

Lipford said that while a majority voted in favor of alcohol sales in 2016, not everyone supported it. He said his vote was on behalf of those people who voted no.

“Everyone is not in agreement to have it easier and easier to sell alcohol,” Lipford said.

In addition, the council:

Approved a low bid of $138,654 from Southern Building Services Inc., to install a sidewalk and small parking lot at the sports complex (near the maintenance building) and to build a sidewalk along Rheas Mill Road.

Approved an ordinance waiving the requirements of competitive bidding for improvements to the traffic signal at Broyles and East Main streets for about $37,000. Farmington has a maintenance agreement with SignalTek Inc., for its traffic lights.