Hoover council hires private engineers to help inspect flood problems
Hoover city officials have visited 69 locations where residents and business owners have reported stormwater flooding problems since the Oct. 6-7 downpours, but they still have about 300 more locations to assess, City Administrator Allan Rice told the Hoover City Council Monday night.
The city’s engineering staff has more work than it can do, so the City Council on Monday night agreed to pay about $310,000 to five private engineering companies to help. This should allow additional assessments to get done more quickly, Rice said.
Meanwhile, contractors hired by the city have completed emergency repairs at three locations, have five more jobs under way and eight others pending, Rice said. “The numbers are moving nicely,” he said.
The City Council has authorized $1.3 million worth of emergency stormwater flooding repair work, and $330,000 of that already has been allocated, Rice said. The city also has spent another $27,000 on overtime, materials and supplies related to flooding assessment and cleanup, he said.
City officials have received informal notice that Jefferson and Shelby counties and Alabama should qualify for federal disaster assistance related to the Oct. 6-7 flooding and will seek federal reimbursement for as much of the work being done as possible, Rice said.
Once official word comes through, residents and business owners should be able to file claims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to seek reimbursement for expenses not covered by their insurance companies, Rice said.
He encouraged residents and business owners to keep detailed records of any damages and expenses incurred related to the flooding.
RESIDENT PLEAS
Meanwhile, about a dozen more residents spoke to the council Monday night about reoccurring flooding problems. Some thanked the council for work that already has been done and urged city officials to continue updating residents on progress and working to find permanent solutions to keep problems from reoccurring.
Melissa Watts, a resident on Patton Chapel Road in Hoover’s Green Valley community who has been working with an attorney to file a lawsuit related to stormwater flooding issues, said she was impressed with progress that has been made but still is not satisfied.
She said her family’s house has flooded three times since the Patton Chapel Road construction project began and noted how some of her neighbors’ homes have flooded more times than that.
Watts gave each Hoover councilman a small sandbag filled with sand with the words “Fix it” written on them as a reminder they need to take action.
Council President John Lyda said he, too, has been concerned with the speed of the construction project on Patton Chapel Road, and invited Watts and others to take any concerns about that project to the Jefferson County Commission because the county is leading that project.
Lyda last week wrote a letter to County Commission President Jimmie Stephens, stating that “while I am no storm water engineer, any lay person can observe the issue that has, without question, caused our residents to experience flooding as a result of the Patton Chapel project.
“With the pavement being incomplete and several inches below the storm water gutters and inlets, it’s evident that no storm water runoff is making to the inlets and into the drainage system,” Lyda wrote. “As a result, all of the runoff is being routed down driveways, parking lots and side streets, onto private property mostly south of Patton Chapel Road toward I-459, resulting in flooding and property damage that will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for our residents.”
Lyda invited Stevens, city and county engineers and project managers to walk the project site with him, to examine what is causing the flooding. He also asked for a timeline for project completion.
“Further delays in getting the road surface up to grade with the storm water inlets expose our residents to additional flooding risk that can be avoided,” Lyda wrote.
Rice also announced that Schoel Engineering, on behalf of the city, has completed its study of flooding issues in the Green Valley community and plans to give a public presentation of its findings at 6 p.m. on Nov. 18 at Hoover City Hall.
WIDESPREAD PROBLEMS
But Green Valley isn’t the only community experiencing flooding issues. There were widespread reports of flooding throughout the city on Oct. 6-7, Rice said. Others sharing concerns with the council Monday were from communities that included Loch Haven, Riverchase, Highland Crest, Paradise Acres, Pinewood and Trace Crossings.
At least a couple blamed development of the Magnolia Grove community with causing problems in surrounding areas.
“Each time we have a storm, the flooding problem gets worse,” Pinewood resident Rebecca Richey said.
Chris Tant, who has lived in Loch Haven for 30 years, said the city needs to do something about the drainage ditch behind Loch Haven Drive because people’s yards are eroding and houses are flooding, and the problem is getting worse. “Somebody’s got to fix it, or somebody’s going to get hurt,” Tant said.
Katie Thomas, a resident of the Scout Trace subdivision in Trace Crossings, said it’s the city’s responsibility to monitor stormwater runoff. She said the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in April fined U.S. Steel for failing to maintain best management practices as it has developed The Preserve and questioned whether any changes have been made at The Preserve since then.
If the city knew about problems there and did nothing, that’s a bad thing, and if the city didn’t know about problems there, that’s another problem and still not good, she said.
Thomas asked the City Council to facilitate a meeting with homeowners instead of just listening to residents’ complaints at meetings without replying. “We need to have a two-way conversation about this,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rice said the city has been extremely busy removing debris from the recent flooding event as residents place ruined carpet, furniture, flooring and other debris at the curb for pickup.
Fourteen vehicles working fulltime have been hauling on average 23 loads with 285 cubic yards of debris per day, Rice said. Priority is being placed on removing people’s possessions, so some of the natural items such as tree limbs and bagged leaves are having to wait longer for pickup, he said.
He asked residents to be patient because the flood debris is causing greater demand for pickup of bulk items than usual.
The city’s new company providing garbage and recycling pickup, Amwaste, also is still working out some of the kinks associated with taking over a new city, Rice said. In particular, there have been some problems for people who get backdoor pickup due to medical conditions and problems as drivers learn new routes, he said.
Amwaste is putting supervisors back in the field to address problem routes and has corrected a software communication issue regarding backdoor pickup addresses, Rice said.
“We’d rather not have fumbles, but if we have fumbles, we’d rather have good recovery,” Rice said. And “Amwaste is extremely responsive. … We’ll get to the point where this is stable.”