ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski officials are finding that some of the ideas they have been studying to head off flooding problems wouldn't be much help.
The town's Public Operations Committee agreed Thursday to recommend using inmate labor to clean Peak Creek this spring. But they said the creek likely would still flood after a massive snow or rain.
Jake Blevins, a resident of Dora Highway which got some of the worst of last month's flooding, had urged Pulaski Town Council to consider removing a bottleneck near his home along Peak Creek. But Town Engineer John Hawley said a study of the situation shows that would not help if precipitation totals were similar to last month's.
Hawley said digging a 60-foot-wide channel from Blevins' property for 5,672 feet to the East Main Street (Virginia 99) bridge would reduce the flood level by less than a foot and would cost upwards of $700,000. Blevins had more than 5 feet of water in his basement.
A 100-foot-wide channel would cost even more, and that would still leave more than 2 feet of flooding under last month's conditions, he said.
Councilwoman Bettye Steger still wanted town staff members to hear from representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Huntington, W.Va., office, who made a study of Peak Creek years ago. Assistant Town Manager Rob Lyons said the corps would come to Pulaski to make a presentation, but would not make a new study.
The town still plans to do some cleaning of Peak Creek, if property owners along its flood-prone area will approve easements allowing heavy machinery on their property.
Town Manager Tom Combiths noted that the goal is to ease flooding problems town-wide, not only along Dora Highway.
The study showed the main problems in the downtown area, mainly because of surface runoff and overloaded draining facilities; Dora Highway, where estimated damages are $5,000 a year; and scattered areas upstream on the town's west side where three railroad and highway bridges encroach on the creek channel capacity.
Proposed improvements in the east end of town would not help the Lottier Street area, which also had severe flooding. That would take a channel 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, costing nearly $200,000.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB