By Tom Fink
July 2, 2009 — While street flooding may be the last thing on people’s minds during the hot, dry summer months, City of Claremore authorities are hoping a proposed ordinance will alleviate, if not eliminate, the flooding of city streets and homes in the future.
“The city has been repeatedly overwhelmed in the last few years by flood waters and the inability of our drainage system to effectively handle these waters,” said Tim Miller, City of Claremore utilities director. “This inability has resulted in damage to several homes in and around the floodplain of our city.
“As this is a recurring issue, it was the council’s direction to us to research and develop a plan to improve our stormwater drainage system,” he continued. “We’ve been in talks with companies to complete this study and implement the improvements that will allow our system to effectively mitigate this issue. The study will cost $400,000 and the estimated cost of improvements is in the area of $100,000,000 — this is a dollar amount that can’t be funded with our current revenues, as it’s not something for which we currently collect revenues.”
Miller said to receive revenues for the proposed drainage improvements, the city would need to introduce a flat monthly stormwater fee of $2 for residential, $20 for small commercial, and $50 for large commercial/industrial customers to pay for the needed upgrades and long-term improvements.
“We’re recommending the introductory rates be flat fees based on customer class, but in future years, we may look at utilizing a standard impermeable surface equation to determine the commercial/industrial rates,” he said. “Right now though, we feel the flat fees would be the most appropriate way to start our draining funding and improvement projects.”
Should City Council members approve the ordinance change Monday nighProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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the change would take effect in 30 days and could be reflected on City of Claremore utility customer’s bills in the month of August.
