Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrators Blog
Walter Denton
June 19, 2009
I did an interview this afternoon with KMOX regarding damage assessments from the June 9 tornado and storms. We estimate that the City spent $25,000-$30,000 cleaning up debris and repairing damaged equipment. We estimate there is $350,000-$400,000 in private property damage.
City expenses include cleaning debris from roadways and public property (such as public trees). In addition, our State Street water tower was the victim of a lightning strike that fried our water system monitoring equipment.
Private property damage includes a destroyed home on Main Street, roof and water damage to the Hilton Garden Inn, and roof damage to Fulton Junior High School.
Mayor Graham and I attended the Grand Reopening of the Wal Mart Supercenter on Wednesday morning. Wal Mart spent $1 million to do a complete remodel of the store to their new design and format (one of only ten in the country). In this poor economy, it is an important statement that Wal Mart upgraded their store with no taxpayer incentives or assistance of any kind. The store’s layout is nice and hopefully will improve our sagging sales tax revenues.
Residents who live in north O’Fallon may have noticed a portion of Deer Creek Road that is crumbling near Schwarz Meadow. Some have asked whether this is mine subsidence, but there are no mines in the area. Rather, it is known as a “pavement buckle” in the civil engineering world. While they seem permanent, concrete slabs can move, swell, and contract depending on weather conditions. The stress on this particular slab was strong enough that it caused the concrete to “buckle” and crumble. Beginning next week, crews will make two cuts completely across Deer Creek to make the repair. Unfortunately, the concrete on Deer Creek is of lower quality and we may see more of this in the future.
Julia Drive is back open again. With all of the rain this spring, an alert resident noticed a growing hole in the street due to a collapsed storm drain. Crews were sent out two weeks ago for emergency repairs, which included tearing up and closing Julia. The street is open again, but crews are now in the backyards to replace the drainage pipes north to Wesley Drive. The work was messy and inconvenient, but drainage will improve in the neighborhood.
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