Potential loss of street department pushes Huntingburg’s hunt for new location
When the calls came for assistance with the flooding Saturday, Huntingburg’s Street Department had a hard time responding. The department’s building and compound located at 1103 E. First Street had been surrounded by water.
A department employee donned some waders and, with the water reaching his waist at times, made his way to the building to begin to remove equipment.
After bringing out vehicles, an impromptu headquarters was established at a shelter house in the park. It operated there until the water receded enough for them to return to the building and yard.
Unfortunately, more than 14 inches of water inundated the metal-sided building and along with soaking furniture, tools and electronics, made it into the department’s salt supply. With the added corrosiveness of the salt water, things began to rust rapidly as they dried.
Street Superintendent Jason Stamm told the Huntingburg Board of Public Works Thursday he thought the building was totaled. “I think it’s only worth $50,000, $55,000,” he said.
The cost for cleanup could be daunting as well. Stamm told the board cleaners will have to cut into the walls of the building two feet above the floor to ensure the interior and insulation dry to prevent mold. “It looks better,” he said. “But you can’t see behind kitchen cabinets and behind the walls. That is where we are going to obviously develop problems.”
Planning Director Paul Lake also informed the board that if the building is considered a total loss, anything built to replace it in that location will likely come with additional costs due to it being in a flood plain.
Fortunately, as part of its Stellar Community plans, the city has begun the process of investigating a new location for the street department. Appraisals of a property on 13th Street are underway as a potential future location.
“We already have an unqualified estimate of around $200,000 worth of damages in our street department between the equipment and structure,” Mayor Denny Spinner said. “It’s a significant amount of damage and the structural damage is an area we are concerned about because we want to ensure the area our employees are working in is safe.”
According to Spinner, the city has reached out to the state and federal departments for assistance with the street department. “We are trying to determine if we can receive funding to help,” he said. “It may not be something we find a solution to in the next month or so but I think all the resources are there to help us find a solution.”
Spinner also pointed out that according to the National Weather Service’s Point Precipitation Frequency Estimates classification system, the more than 11 inches in total of precipitation the city received over the timeframe it occurred qualified as a 1,000-year rain event.
To assist with garnering federal aid, Spinner reiterated the need for anyone with damage, no matter how small, to report it by calling 211.
Just curious, does the city not have insurance on this property? If so, why do they need to use Stellar funds for this?
This was already listed as a Stellar Project as part of the application process.
Yes, this is insured.
What happened to the 19th St property that was being touted as a new location to be shared with a public storm shelter of some sort – can’t recall the details and agencies involved. Is that caput, or what, with now looking at 13th St?
The original plan involved a building housing a street department and public shelter. Those plans are still progressing as part of the Stellar process but have not been a focus recently due to other time sensitive projects.
OK, but if it’s that simple, it doesn’t answer or explain how and why they (can) focus on other property, else one would think it to be the original (plan). Sounds like there’s more to it than just time-sensitive projects – maybe a snag on costs, a dead end, etc.
To clarify, in 2015, the city applied for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to assist with building a new location for the street department. The grant was not awarded so Huntingburg went back to the drawing board on the design of the building to reduce costs (federal grant money comes with federal construction stipulations). The county has dedicated $500,000 to the building since it will also provide some type of emergency management/shelter as well. With the recent damages from the flooding, the city has garnered the support of Congressman Bucshon and Senator Donnelly and is reapplying for the FEMA grant to help pay for the new street department location.
That’s why you don’t build anything NEW in a FLOOD plain. This should be a wake up call to anyone wanting to build in a flood plain.
It should certainly be a wake-up call to the city – understand never quite this bad before – but with many years (decades) and many other rain-flood events of major proportions, they’ve simply been caught asleep at the wheel of action in getting the Street Dept relocated. No excuses.
Will you can’t stop god’s rain .if he wants it to rain it will .so all I can say is god is a supreme being and we do what says .god will provide for our city .
You’re right, Michael, and God also gave us all a brain, intelligence and common sense, and in being good stewards the city’s leaders are and have been obliged to smartly use what He gave them…goes for anyone, really. If they find themselves in a flood plain and they’ve been flooded over time and again to various degrees going back a helluva long time, they ought to have used those brains by now to have gotten the hell out, way before this! Even the Street man said it in so many words – that they wanted to help people but they couldn’t do anything, couldn’t get to their facilities and get their equipment out – essentially up a creek without a paddle.