BRIDGEPORT – Periodic flooding on 17th Street in the city’s downtown may soon be a thing of the past if city Public Works Superintendent Stuart Dezellem has anything to say about it. Dezellem advised city council members at their regular monthly meeting March 17 that he wants to reinstall open storm drainage ditches along the city streets like Raymond, Tacoma, and Fifth that feed into 17th Street so that storm water and melt runoff can be channeled into the city drainage system.
Dezellem said that back in the 1960’s and 70’s there were open drainage ditches along those streets that served that very purpose.
“Over the years those have gotten filled in and leveled up,” Dezellem said.
Dezellem said that as one of the city’s major north-south drainages, 17th Street has sustained some shoulder and pavement loss due to the excess runoff that he wants to prevent in the future.
In late January, the arctic cold snap froze the surface of the ground on land benches south of the city. February snow added about four inches of the white stuff on top of the frozen ground. When a later warm chinook wind blew through melting the snow, residents who knew from past experience what was coming next descended on the public works department for sandbags to protect their homes and property.
“We got a sandbagging tool from the Department of Corrections in Walla Walla,” said Dezellem. “We used that to fill about 2,500 bags in anticipation of excess water.”
Dezellem said residents used between 500 and 1,000 bags to form water barriers this time around.
“When the chinook wind began blowing, everybody was picking up sandbags,” Dezellem said.
Dezellem said he will notify the public by letter of the city’s plan to reinstall the open ditches and he wants to get the project done by late spring or early summer while the flooding is still fresh in everybody’s minds.
Remedy street parking
Dezellem suggested that the city clarify its street parking ordinance to help public works keep the street rights-of-way clear for snow plowing and weed spraying operations.
“I do not wanted vehicles that are not driven daily parked along the street,” said Dezellem. “We have parking codes already for on-street parking.”
Dezellem said the city’s nuisance vehicle ordinance provisions involve a long, drawn-out process that can take weeks to remove an obstructing vehicle. He said more clarification in the street parking ordinance is needed to eliminate prolonged parking on street shoulders.
Think water use efficiency
Bridgeport is entering its third cycle of the state’s water use efficiency program and unlike the past two cycles, Dezellem wants more council and community input regarding city goals this time around.
In one of the city’s past two cycles Dezellem set a goal to reduce water use by six percent and achieved a result of more than 20 percent. For the next cycle’s goals, he asked council members to give some thought to what they think the city’s goals should be for the next five years.
Second generator needed
The city needs a second portable generator to handle city power needs in the event of an emergency or power failure Dezellem said.
“Like most municipalities our size, we are running two water pumps,” said Dezellem. “We need that second generator available to bring online during a crisis.”
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