Residents asked to contribute to stormwater study

Residents in the Wayne Hills neighborhood of Waynesboro had its first chance during a public meeting Tuesday to weigh in on stormwater improvements as part of the city’s study of the issue.

About a dozen residents turned out for the meeting, with several of them pointing out the location of specific issues in their neighborhood. It suffers alley, street, yard and basement flooding in heavy rain events due to a lack of insufficient stormwater channels and culvert capacity.

Stormwater manager Mike Crocker said there are a number of properties affected by drainage problems when it rains, including areas along Dogwood Circle and Dogwood Street, Loudoun Avenue, James Avenue and King Avenue.

This is the first of two planned meetings with residents; the second will take place in January. Crocker described this first meeting as informational.

“It’s our way of staying in touch and keeping them up to speed,” Crocker said.

Councilwoman Nancy Dowdy, who represents the Wayne Hills area, as well as Lorie Smith, who is the council representative on the Flood Control Commission, encouraged residents to contact them or Crocker if there are other specific stormwater issues in Wayne Hills.

Don Rissmeyer of A Morton Thomas and Associates, Inc. of Richmond, the engineering firm conducting the Wayne Hills study, said the study’s goals were to reduce or eliminate flooding. The study area covers 122 acres.

The city has about 55 miles of sewer lines littered with debris, including diapers, basketballs, two-by-fours and concrete blocks.

“It’s quite the responsibility to take care of,” Crocker said.

Also, emergency vehicles cannot access King Avenue if there is a heavy rain, due to flooding.

“The city would like to get to the point where outstanding drainage issues are remediated and allow emergency vehicles in,” Crocker said.

The second meeting, Crocker said, would go into more depth on designs. For now, he said it is key to keep leaves out of the storm drains. He hopes the leaf collection in November and December will remediate that.

Vice Mayor Frank Lucente, who renewed his call to have a crew of prisoners work on cleaning out the city’s drains, said the city is making progress improving its stormwater management. He said he has been watching the gutters being cleaned out and brush and trees being eliminated from the drain systems.

“That, to me, demonstrates that we’re starting to work on the infrastructure we have in place, which is important to me,” Lucente said.

Following the second meeting, Rissmeyer expects the engineering design on possible solutions for the Wayne Hills area to be ready in April 2010, moving into the bid and construction phase by November 2010.

The city will spend $6.2 million in bond money to make improvements to eight, top-priority stormwater projects, including Wayne Hills.

Crocker has a stormwater crew of about seven people, along with himself and an inspector.