2024/02/13 - Mayor's Column: Continuing to Improve the City’s Drainage
“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
As we watched the heavy rains that hit California this past week and the damage caused by the severe flooding, I couldn’t forget the heavy rains that hit our area in July of 2022 or the 4+ inches that we received in about an hour this past year.
California received over 10 inches of rain over a 48-hour span and the St. Louis area received 12 inches in less than 12 hours.
We had some flooding here in the O’Fallon area but nothing like that which we have seen in communities in California.
I give a lot of credit for that to our Public Works staff and the work that they have done over the past 6 years to improve our storm water drainage. During the last 5 years they have spent about 5 million dollars on improving storm water drainage. This has reduced the flooding that our older parts of town had lived with for years. I know that I have received information from many homeowners that said they would regularly get 2 to 3 inches of water in their basement and now their basements are dry.
That doesn’t mean that we are perfect by far, but it does show that this problem that has existed for years and years has been recognized and is being addressed. For many years water run off was never given the attention that it should have been given.
We know that there is still work to be done and that is why during the next 5 years we have allocated 10 million for drainage, which is double the last 5 years. We have also undertaken some studies of areas that are impacted by flooding so that we can see what can be done.
In addition to that we have just asked our Public Works Department and Council Committee to look at the development of a drainage policy that would set up policy and parameters for the city and resident to work together on drainage areas identified as needing assistance.
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.