Any proposal by Parkhill to resolve the flooding on W. Fleming, now closed, needs to address the large amount of street debris and caliche that is pushed there by the floodwaters. The source of the debris and caliche is as far away as two blocks at the intersection of 5th and Juanita.
Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that is my agenda analysis.
October 6 update: I did not attend this meeting due to the conflict with the IC ISD meeting; I finally was able to listen to the audio of the meeting, and I’ve posted my analysis of that here.
A. Agenda analysis
There’s no “new” business at this meeting that requires a vote from the Council, so this meeting agenda is an example of a “stock” agenda. (These items are found on every agenda for this Council. See another stock agenda here.)
I highlighted 6 c, Review/approval of financial documents, as yet another reason why citizens should attend City Council meetings. The Council is spending your tax dollars at each of its meetings, and if citizens are not engaged the Council will spend it as they see fit and without the benefit of your opinion.
The latest 2024 bond proposal is to raise the original Ag building pictured in the upper right and add more parking between this parking lot (the GMPL) and City Gym. More runoff directed to these drain holes will undoubtedly overwhelm them. All runoff from the existing GMPL and any new lot ultimately will reach the Community Center and OK Wolfenbarger Stadium, unless a robust flood diversion plan is developed by Parkhill. Will you remain silent and allow City Park to be flooded even more? If you are so inclined, consider putting up a ribbon on the prayer fence for the community because the Community Center quite literally exists at the mercy of IC ISD and it’s agents. Again, as IC ISD gears up to issue the first of the 2024 bonds, don’t forget this map and that all floodwaters go to City Park.
B. Meeting analysis
As mentioned above, there was no new business at this meeting. There was, however, a worthwhile discussion among Council members about whether there was any impact from the recent rains on the street that is closed, W Fleming. The photo at the top of this page shows that the road debris continues to build up on the street, so that is the most readily identifiable impact. (The impact was broader, of course. The stormwater that washes across this street ends up at City Park and looks like the photo here, and a careful inspection of the Park shows erosion of the topsoil.)
So, just because W. Fleming no longer looks like this during a flood, it is worth remembering that this is is so because of the removal of the debris from the street back in December 2023.
Thus, the flooding problem is not illusory merely because there is no longer standing flood waters on W. Fleming. Indeed, let's hope we are beyond the days of Superintendent Ray DeSpain, who denied the obvious: the storm waters from the new gym flood the new renovations at the District’s football field (leased to the District by the City of Mertzon), all paid for with the 2019 school bonds that he spent. This stormwater flooding is a community wide problem, and I am merely the determined messenger who as long ago as 2016 asked the District to stop flooding me and in 2019 correctly forecasted before the school bond election that the problems would worsen.
Copyright 2024 G Noelke