At the top of the agenda for tonight's Public Works meeting at 6PM at Public Works office on Madison Street was the recent water problems on the westside of Evansville. After citizens voiced their specific situation, the city engineer, Dave Sauer spoke, and then with questions on the impact of the development of Westfield Meadows, Roger Berg, one of the investors of Westfield Meadows presented his assessment of the situation and the remedies available.
The Observer will be publishing full audio and selected video of the meeting.
This was an important meeting for the future of Evansville and was marked by a feeling that Evansville government as well as developers such as Mr. Berg were committed to solving the current problem in order to ensure the success of future development. It was marked by citizen suggestions for solutions as well as alternatives presented by developers and government.
At the April 23rd meeting of Public Works, you can hear on audio the Observer giving the two hopeful remedies for the future---the improvement of the Southgate Pond and the holding pond on Porter Road with the V-notch. Both did not function as promised.
The proper functioning of the holding pond and the v-notch was a precondition of the builders permits for Westfield Meadows. Some citizens attending the meeting asked that development be suspended till the solutions were found. Public works said they did not have the power to do this.
Stay tuned. This is the Evansville Observer.
We attend the meetings.....We're where the mainstream media gets their news.
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When the Observer writes that the V-notch did not function as promised, it give the impression that the V-notch is not a viable solution. There was a defect in the construction of the detention pond that was not detected before the 9 inches of rain fell, and that defect caused the storm water to go around the V-notch instead of through it. So the V-notch did not get a chance to work or fail. The Observer appears to willfully disregard this fact.
ReplyDeleteBill Connors
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ReplyDeleteBill:
ReplyDeleteAs I understand history, the developers agreement provided that no construction could BEGIN till the regional stormwater infrastructure was deemed functional----this was amended and you indeed mentioned at the time of amendment, that this was "riskier," that it was amended to be "no occupancy permit could be issued" until it was functional.
The minutes of the Public Works posted today list the stormwater retention on Porter as functional as of last month and it was "transferred to the city".
I have posted re the V-notch, and in reading the "Rainfall Frequency" document (141) pages, it is clear that the V would have to be higher in subsequent rains in the case of a sequence of rains since the saturation factor is very low. I just wondered and asked Mr.Sauer and Wort whether there was a variable V, and they answered that there is such a thing.
My only point is that neither the retention V notch nor the Southgate pond were effective.
One must be consistent in that if one does not know what the solution is, one must ABSTAIN from occupancy permits.
I am recording the proceedings and do also a little OPed; however, I do believe it is in the best interest of everyone to have an independent evaluation since at this point, nobody is motivated to find error--.
One cannot say that it was just that we were a few bathtubs short---that is what Noah told his wife. When asked how many retention ponds might be needed further, Mr. Sauer just said it would have to be reviewed. Till the answer is found, I think a time out is necessary.
I think that Mason's suggestion of setting up some sort of neighborhood association,etc. is a great idea. I am not sure if anyone talked about doing this or not after the meeting? If something is in the works that's great. If not, I would suggest a blog dedicated to the issues we are facing as residents of the westside where we can exchange information/ideas or that we create a yahoo group to exchange info. I would be willing to set either one up. At the very least it would be nice to exchange email addresses to share info. If anyone is interested contact me via my email on my blogger profile or call me I'm in the book.
ReplyDeleteMark