The most substantial improvements to the city’s stormwater drainage system in almost two decades will start full force in the spring.
In all, nearly $6.5 million in reconstruction and rehabilitation work is planned on 11 projects from St. Elmo to Brainerd to North Chattanooga.
“At last, we have enough money to issue bonds,” Mayor Ron Littlefield said.
There’s far more work that needs to be done, city officials acknowledge. But these are the highest-priority projects affecting the greatest number of people, City Engineer Bill Payne said.
Money for the work comes from a much-criticized stormwater fee increase that swelled the city’s water quality budget from $7 million last year to $11.5 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Not since the 1990s has the city had the money to tackle projects of this magnitude, Littlefield said.
“It’s been a long time,” he said.
BY THE NUMBERS* $11.5 million: Water quality, or stormwater, budget for 2010-2011 fiscal year* $6.5 million: Money for capital improvements in 2010-2011* 11: Number of capital improvement projectsSource: Chattanooga
And even more projects are coming in the next two years, Littlefield said, calling the work planned in the next six months or so a “drop in the bucket.”
The City Council in April raised residential fees from $24 or $36 a year to $115.20 and based fees for business and industry on the size of the facility compared to a home. They pay $6.15 a month per equivalent residential unit, but that fee will rise to match homeowners’ fees over five years.
The projects include improving stormwater ditches that run through the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, on Sterling Avenue and through St. Elmo; fixing fallen ditches in Brainerd; and buying flood-prone property off Robinson Drive, rerouting a drainage ditch and building a new one around a Brainerd business.
The country club project will be tackled this year, while the other work will be handled in the spring, city officials said.
Not all are happy with how the stormwater fees are being spent.
Councilman Russell Gilbert said some residents in his district face flooding problems every time it rains, and he thinks that needs to be a priority.
“If it’s flooding people right now, that’s the ones we need to work on,” he said.
Littlefield agreed, but said it’s complicated because many of the problem areas are on private property and there could be liability problems.
problem upon problem
The city raised its stormwater fee last year to address an impending consent order from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Littlefield made his stormwater proposals to show the city was working to address repeated stormwater and sewer violations. The city continues negotiations regarding the consent order.
But some residents say they have more immediate problems.
Clifford Bryant has lived on Nimitz Street off Tunnel Boulevard for almost 15 years. Ten years ago, someone cleared some woods next to his home and built a house. The city also widened a drainage ditch that ran toward his property.
Since then his home has flooded three times, he said.
“My house is about to wash away,” he said.
Rose Jordan, who lives on Tunnel Boulevard, said when it rains, her neighbor’s yard floods and her own driveway fills with water.
She has called the city, she said.
“They said there’s nothing [city officials] can do,” she said.
Payne said the city stopped going on private property to address such problems a decade ago because it didn’t have enough money to hire crews and contractors.
As the city shores up its water quality program, smaller projects in need of immediate attention will be considered, he said.
“We can look on it as a case by case basis,” Payne said.