Village Moves To Curtail Flooding

By John Larson

MAGDALENA – A long awaited infrastructure project designed to reduce flooding of several Magdalena streets is finally getting underway, according to a report by Mayor Jim Wolfe at Monday night’s Village Board Meeting.
He said funding from a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) has been approved by Housing and Urban Development, which means an engineer can start studying the problem areas.
Wolfe, who, as an engineer for the federal government before his retirement, was one of the designers of the north-south diversion channel for Albuquerque.
“The first thing will be to figure out where are the breaking points for drainage, and sort out how many acres are in that area,” Wolfe told the Mountain Mail. “Then the engineer will have to develop a rainfall intensity over a certain amount of time, and then come up with a flood flow analysis, based on a 100 year flood.
“We had some mapping done, and they can produce some high quality topography from those maps because of high resolution giving four to five foot contours.”
He said the village would not be able to finance the installation of storm drains.
“We don’t have the money for that,” he said. “What they may do is come up with a design to channelize the runoff at Limit Street into the big ditch, and conceptualize a design for modifying the (west side) arroyo to use for drainage.”
He said Pat Stovall of Smith Engineering will be heading the project.
“They are the ones that helped with the lagoons, and the dam issue,” Wolfe said. “It will be a big project.”
Joint Utilities Director Steve Bailey said most every unpaved street in the village is susceptible to flood damage during a heavy rainfall, especially the cul-de-sacs north of First Street.
“Those accumulate all the debris. Once the water gets down there it just chews it up,” Bailey said. “But we have to deal with rain water all over town. On some streets customers will ask if I can help out with filling in dirt in washed out places, but it usually washes out again with the next rainfall.”
He said some property owners have been given permission to put in their own culverts.

In other business:
• The board approved the expenditure of $6,000 to pay for Basic EMT training for six new volunteers. Marshal Larry Cearley said the approval “will relieve some of the pressure on the current EMTs.” The training course, taught by John Cole, will be held on 10 consecutive weekends.
• The board approved the purchase of eight sets of up-to-date bunker gear for the volunteer fire department for $12,736.50 from First-In, Inc. Fire Chief Art Rauschenberg said the suits incorporate “drag rescue loops” for added safety. “The company will come in and make sure each set of coat and pants will be fitted to the volunteer’s size,” he said.

Village Moves To Curtail Flooding