2023/08/21 - Mayor's Column: City Fest & Drainage
“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
I wanted to fill you in on a couple of items happening in O’Fallon. The first is City Fest 2023. This is the 5th City Fest and each of them has improved with input from those attending. Last year we heard many positives about how nice an activity it was and that families could enjoy the rides, games, entertainment, food, and refreshments.
This year’s City Fest kicks off at 4 PM on Friday, August 25th and goes to 10 PM. Then on Saturday things get started with the Triathlon at 8 AM at the park, The Car show at 9 AM and other activities getting under way. At 5 PM the Parade steps off from North Lincoln and goes down Lincoln to 7th street where it turns into the park and concludes on South Apple Street after it leaves the Park.
The other topic I wanted to talk about was what the city was doing to address storm water drainage. For many years storm water runoff has never been given much consideration as developments occurred. But that is definitely not the case today.
During the past few years, priorities have been established on which areas will be addressed first. These priorities are if homes, businesses or roadways are being flooded or damaged by flooding storm waters. In the last 10 years the City has spent over $10 Million on Storm Water issues. During the next 5 years, the City will spend in excess of $10 Millions more on improving storm water drainage and preventing a reoccurrence of much of the damage /flooding to homes, businesses and roadways.
This has also impacted new developments because now water retention is required. In some cases, businesses projects have been rejected because they did not have sufficient water retention in their plans.
In some cases, there are waterways/drainage areas in town that are referred to as “Waters of the U.S.” that are regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Others fall under the provisions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In these cases, work on these require advance approval and some restrictions on what can be done to impede the flow of water in some natural drainage ways. In other cases, the drainage ways or located on personal property with no open access or easement to gain entrance. All of these things play into what can and can’t be done on certain drainage areas.
Our studies and input from drainage experts have told us that in many cases everyone along a drainage way must buy in and do the remediation needed or the attempt to control the flooding or erosion of property won’t work long term.
We continue to look at and evaluate numerous sites throughout the city that are negatively impacted by flooding from storm water. If you want to know if an area near you is already scheduled for work, please go on the city website and look through the 5-year Capital Improvement Plan. You will find these types of projects under Public Works.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.