By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
How best to repair the ceiling in the pool area of the community center was the only item on the Jacksonville City Council’s agenda Thursday night.
But the agenda had been set before the rains pummeled the area and floodwaters sprawled through portions of the city, closing schools, streets and even Hwy. 67/167 for days.
Jim Moore, president of the Stonewall Property Owners Association, told the council that flood recovery needed “to be priority No. 1 over the pool.”
Mayor Gary Fletcher, who had spent most of the day out talking to residents whose homes had flooded and checking water levels, said the damage and problems could have been much worse.
“Another inch or two of rain and we would have had another 200 to 400 homes flooded,” he said.
City Administration Director Jim Durham said homes on East View Drive, Piñon and around Reed’s Bridge seem to have been hit the hardest.
Eastview Apartment residents were voluntarily evacuated Monday because of rising water.
A number of East View Drive residents were at the meeting to give the council a personal recap of last weekend’s rains, which dropped more than seven inches on the area less than a week behind a storm that spawned tornadoes and also dropped copious amounts of rain.
Tammy Newman, who lives on East View Drive, said she had a foot of standing water in her home. One of her neighbors, Peggy Sears, had three inches.
Sears was also upset by the largest trucks and other vehicles driving down the street sending waves of water into the homes. The street was barricaded, but with Hwy. 67/167 closed and 60,000 vehicles being diverted through the city, the mayor said many chose to circumvent the barricades as they tried to detour around the closed highway.
Barricades are gone now, but drivers are still speeding through. “We are just going to issue tickets until drivers get the idea and slow down or take different routes,” Durham said.
With the highway detour, the mayor said many heavy trucks used city streets not designed for that kind of weight or traffic. “Who knows what our future damage will be?” he asked.
The mayor said the city will do what it can, but that the flooding is also the problem of the Corps of Engineers, the state and the county. He said he called Rep. Tim Griffin’s office (R-Ark.) to see what FEMA and other federal agencies could do.
City Engineer Jay Whisker said water crested over the freeway in the 1960s and back in 2009. “This time it was two to three feet over Hwy. 67/167,” he said.
The mayor said earlier in the week that it was the second time in 18 months that water had reached or surpassed the 100-year flood stage. “We were looking for maps with the 500-year flood levels marked on it,” he said.
After the flooding in late 2009, Pulaski County supposedly spent $800,000 on a flood study and some residents wanted to know what the outcome of that study was.
Residents blamed the flooding on the city, the railroad and Waste Management.
Some residents said the expansion of the Two Pine Landfill to the north side of I-440 caused an extra buildup of water. “Why couldn’t the company allow the water to flow onto some of its dry cells (reserved areas)?” one resident asked.
Joey Price, a former Jackson-ville parks and recreation commissioner, said the railroad tracks going through parts of the city created a dam. “If you would open a floodway under the tracks, it would help,” he said. To emphasize how high the water was, Price said he was able to boat through the woods from the Bayou Meto to Dupree Park.
In other council business:
Alderman Reedie Ray thanked aldermen and the city for the cards, food and assistance in the wake of his wife’s death less than two weeks ago.
Aldermen approved a resolution permitting the mayor to sign the necessary loan paperwork for the city to purchase trucks, trash containers and other items necessary to convert to an automated trash pickup.
The city will borrow about $1.3 million at 3 percent for five years from Bancorp South. That financial institution offered the city the best rates.
The new automated system, supported by an increase in garbage rates passed earlier this year, should start mid summer.
City Engineer Jay Whisker, in his monthly report, told the council that his department issued 16 building permits and 13 business licenses during April. The department also performed 169 inspections and wrote more than 250 letters to city residents or business owners for unkempt yards or structure concerns.
