Annette Hayden Havre Daily News ahayden@havredailynews.com
Residents’ concerns about flooding behind their homes on 14th Street were answered during the regular Havre City Council meeting Monday. At the May 7 meeting, the council heard from three citizens, each of who reside on 14th Street West near the Rural Development Self-Help home build site located between Monroe and Jefferson Avenues. The property owners said they were experiencing flooding issues at the back of their properties due to the development’s building activities. Though the concerned residents said they were in support of the self-help home build, they also wanted to make sure the new roads would be built to allow proper drainage. “We are glad people can get into houses that previously could not,” one resident said at the time. “But we need to alert you to a potential problem. The road (constructed in the home build project) is higher than the natural drainage flow and creates a dam and then flooding. Water is now covering 2/3 of my 130-foot lot. I am pleased the city came and cut the road, which allowed 12 inches of the water to drain, but the road needs repaired.” The second resident expressed concern that the road was not paved and curbed, while the third reiterated the flooding potential and requested that, prior to paving, the level and grade of the road be addressed. Mayor Bob Rice told the residents he understood that the new road was to be paved and curbed by this summer, and that he would investigate the issues and have answers for the public by the middle of June. Rice introduced Milkriver Engineering Inc. engineer Jay Springer during the June 18 meeting. Springer told the council and audience that work to complete the new roads around the self-help home-build site would resume in mid-July when the earth dries out, and that residents could expect the roads, curbs and gutters to be completed this fall. “When the work is complete, residents won’t have any more water than what normally stands anywhere after a hard rain,” Springer said. He added that the current problem of Standing water is a result of the ongoing construction process. There is also an issue with inconsistent grading on the original 14th Street residents’ property lines. The new self-help home sites under construction required the addition of a road, now 14th Place, which runs parallel to and south of 14th Street. The natural lay of the land is higher on 14th Street and travels downhill toward 14th Place. The grade of the new 14th Place is higher than some areas of the 14th Street properties facing south. “Normally in building a road, you would match the current grade, but the established properties were all graded differently so we had to pick the average grade,” Springer said. When the grading, curbing and gutters are complete on both 14th Place and the new 15th Street extension one block south, the storm water will flow west down the 14th Place drainage to Jefferson then south to 15th Street and east to the natural drainage and a nearby natural reservoir Springer said.
