City Targets Drainage at Flood-Prone Intersection; Williston Homeowner Remains Upset

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

An intersection that floods in heavy rains next to John Henry Park and Williston Care Center is likely to see considerable improvement after changes are made to drainage at the park, an engineer said this week.

Resident Joab Penney, who lives at the intersection, has complained for years about flooding on his property and says a considerable amount of equipment including a lawn mower, three vehicles, two motorcycles, and other lawn equipment was damaged by the flooding on June 20.

Official records show at least 5.1 inches of rain fell in a four-hour period in Williston inundating multiple intersections in the city and flooding some homes. Unofficial rainfall records shared by residents with the city indicate 6 to 10 inches fell in a six-hour period that day.

Penney wants the city to file a claim against its insurance to pay for damage to his property, but City Attorney Kiersten Ballou said the city doesn’t insure private property and any claim the city filed would immediately be rejected by the city’s insurance company.

What the city says it can do is try to relieve flooding that occurs during heavy rains when water runs off four hills surrounding the intersection and fills the park. The water backs up into the intersection of NW 4^th Street and 1^st Ave. next to Penney’s home.

Penney confirmed that he had filled in a pond on his property after he bought it. The previous owner apparently dug the drainage pond to prevent flooding in the basement, but Penney said he uses pumps in his basement to keep the water out.

Engineer Walt Nickel of Wright-Pierce, the city’s consulting engineer, said a plan has been developed by the city to expand and deepen a natural depression pond at the park to add more storage capacity for holding stormwater during rain events. Two grants have been approved to pay for the improvements. He said improvements to drainage at the park will reduce flooding at the intersection quite a bit.

“We’re also over-digging it and putting a new sand layer in the bottom of the depression pond to make it percolate faster. We’re improving the drainage pipes in the area to get the water into the pond faster and better,” Nickel said. “Plus, we’re adding a new 36-inch pipe that acts as an emergency overflow that goes to the quarry. That is relief so when that area really gets inundated, we have an overflow pipe that we can discharge to the quarry to the north. That’s the John Henry Park project. That’s going to eliminate a lot of the flooding in that area based on elevations and what happened in June. You got water backing up from John Henry Park and the nursing home area that backed up into your property,” Nickel said to Penney.

Penney wants to build a berm to prevent rising stormwater at the intersection from reaching his property. He said he had permission from former City Manager Scott Lippmann to build the berm. The city council said Lippmann had no authority to make such a promise. Lippmann isn’t an engineer.

Nickel said the water flowing south downhill over Penney’s property and over the site where he filled in a drainage retention pond would have nowhere to go if Penney built a berm to keep water from the intersection from invading his property.

“If you have a berm, you are now creating a dam so the water that comes from the south across your property and comes across where your pond was, would now flow up against that berm and would have nowhere to go,” Nickel said. “The John Henry Park project is going to improve the area. We did say we are going to look at your corner. There’s not a new inlet proposed there but we’re looking at plans that would alleviate some localized flooding across there. We’re going to take a hard look at it. I think we can amend the permitting we applied for. We’re not ignoring it. Is there something we can do to make it even better with the project? We’re giving it a second look. The John Henry stormwater project is going to help that area tremendously. There’s a lot going on there.”

Penny, who said his home isn’t insured, said he doesn’t understand whether he can file a claim with the city for everything he lost.

“You should have had insurance,” said Council President Debra Jones. “If you had cars and vehicles and zero turns, I would have moved them if I didn’t have insurance and you knew it flooded, and if there was a drainage pond on your property and you filled it in with dump truck after dump truck of dirt that displaced that water from where the retention pond was on your own property and you have done that, that’s what I alluded to earlier.”

“I had permission to do that,” Penney said.

“From who?” Jones said.

“Mr. Lippmann,” Penney said.

“You don’t get permission to fill in a drainage pond from Mr. Lippmann. You get it from Swiftmud, which you didn’t have,” she said.

“I got permission from Mr. Lippmann,” Penney repeated.

“Mr. Lippmann did not tell you that you could put dump truck after dump truck of dirt on your property in a drainage retention pond,” Jones replied.

“So, I’m going to spend $20,000 saying I didn’t do that,” Penney said.

“We’re hoping the grants will improve the situation,” Jones said.