Tension mounts as residential flooding continues

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The City of Seward has gathered more information to present to the Seward School District and residents of Star Street to address drainage issues in the area.

At the Seward City Council’s March 17 meeting, several Star Street residents voiced concerns about the flooding in their neighborhood, adding that runoff from Seward Elementary School west of Star Street contributed to the problem.

Karyn Doehring, a Star Street resident, said last year, heavy rains caused her whole basement to flood.

Water came through the window well in Doehring’s basement and the resulting damage required Doehring to replace her carpet and drywall, totalling $5,000. “There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it,” Doehring said.

Seward City Councilmember Ellen Beck, who also lives on Star Street and represents its district, said the city has been trying to reach a solution with the school.

However, Seward Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Greg Barnes said the school was built before the development on Star Street, so figuring out which group is responsible for the drainage is part of the issue.

“Everyone realizes there’s an issue with the drainage,” Barnes said. “It’s just whose responsibility it is to fix it.”

Barnes said the school is not claiming fault, but is willing to work with the city.

“We want to be involved in the discussion,” Barnes said. “We know there’s a problem.”

During the city council’s May 5 meeting, Mayor Josh Eickmeier said the city is in the position of facilitating the situation and gathering information on the topic.

He said the city found that the developer of the Star Street neighborhood was supposed to get an easement from the school district to address drainage issues, but that never happened.

“With that information, it starts to look less like the school district is responsible and looks more like the developer failed to do something,” Eickmeier said.

However, with the 20-year gap between when the development was built and now, Eickmeier said it is possible there is an explanation for why the easement was never obtained, it just may have been forgotten.

“Over time, people involved go away, memories fade and, in some cases, documents lose context,” Eickmeier said.

Eickmeier also said the city council is not in a position to decide fault in this situation because runoff issues are not as concrete as other issues. He also said it can’t be assumed that the easement would’ve been sufficient to fix the drainage problem.

However, no one can ask the developer why the easement was never obtained because the developer is now out of business, according to Public Facilities/Capital Improvements and GIS Director John Hughes.

Additionally, the city received an estimate on the cost of water management measures from the engineering firm Mainelli, Wagner and Associates.

Those plans include grading, increasing the detention cell’s berm elevation and constructing a drainage ditch. The total cost for the project would be $25,000.

However, Eickmeier said this is not a project the city is anticipating taking on. He said the city gathered the information to give to the school district and Star Street residents to help them make decisions.

Beck requested the drainage issue to be put on the School Board’s May 11 agenda.

Looking forward, Beck said the city needs to take a look at the city code and what it can do to guide builders in the future to ensure the best practices are being followed.

“The bottom line is, we have to solve the problem,” Beck said.