09/06/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/6/2005 of water in his basement. I feel we can't claim the storm of the 27th as a storm of the decade. I do feel that this tells us we not only have a problem in the Deerfield development but in Ward 2 in general. I am sure that this Council and administration will do everything we can to get our sewers back in shape as they were when the previous administration bragged about no more pumps needed. Well, I for one think they are needed now more than we were led to believe and hope we can get back on track. Folks, if any body has not called in to let the administration know of a wet basement, please do so. The more data we have, the better we can serve the whole city." Mayor O'Grady responded that he understands the frustrations of Ward II residents and the challenges they face. As he stated in his report, it would be fiscally irresponsible to put out pumps, to call in foremen and laborers and machine operators for overtime to put out pumps each time we have a warning of a storm event. Storm events, including the one that just came through, cannot be predicted accurately. We don't know if the storm is going to come straight down the pipeline at us as happened in this past storm, or if it is going to go to our south or north. To bring in those people and put out those pumps would cost too much money, and it wouldn't be fiscally sound practice. We have never done it in the past. We are not going to do it in the future. We will use the existing practices within the department v~hich have correctly and accurately demonstrated when we have a flooding issue coming towards us, and at that time, we put out the pumps. There are extreme situations. The storm of August 20 was not one of those. It was not one that was predicted. We had a general warning of thunderstorms. It could not be predicted. In fact, after the incident he went back to channel 8 and channel 5 and talked to meteorologists. They said they could not predict definitely where the storm would hit. It was a general alert that thunderstorms were in the area. They had no idea of the intensity. We can't plan for that. When we had the remnants of hurricane Katrina coming our way, we had the pumps out. Not only did we have the pumps out, we went out and rented additional pumps and put those on the street. When there is a major event like that which can be projected it's going to impact upon us in a significant way, we react to it. In other instances, it's just fiscally not possible. Councilman Barker said he would agree with the Mayor to a certain point. But all his life he has been traveling Walter Road and has seen pumps out when rain was predicted. If the pumps were brought out on Saturday, August 20, they probably would not have done any good. But perception would be that the city did something to try. Perception is important to the residents of Ward 2. Mayor O'Grady commented that 10 years ago pumps were put out all the time. In fact, pumps were left out and residents would complain that it was difficult to sell homes with pumps on the streets. Those past issues are not the same as what we are now dealing with. If he starts bringing out pumps and calling in foremen and laborers and machine operators every time there's a projection of a storm, overtime will go through the roof. As a city, we cannot afford it. Councilman Ryan said the flooding that took place was unacceptable. He will do everything possible to direct the funds in the budget to the number one priority which is the infrastructure of this city. People cannot live with water in their basement-period. That is his total and complete commitment. That's one of the reasons he got on Council. Something has got to be done about 15