Flood is going to cost town money

Editor

At the WAM meeting last Friday, I had the opportunity to personally thank Governor Mead for sending state resources to help with the flood efforts in Carbon County and Saratoga.

With the 2014 flood event behind us and if there are no unforeseen damages to the water line that crosses the river at the Saratoga Inn or damage to the bridge at Veterans Island, the estimated cost to the Town of Saratoga is estimated to be between $125,000 and $150,000 this includes all costs not just sandbagging. The State of Wyo. cost was $400,000, with the majority of that being spent in Saratoga.

After meeting with Kim Johnson from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, it doesn’t appear that we will meet the million dollar threshold to make this year’s incident a Federal Declaration. Therefore the cost incurred by the town will have to come out of reserves.

As you know, 3 out of the last 5 years we have seen a 100 year (1% ) flood in Saratoga. With the conditions of the forest, especially in the Encampment River Drainage, the chances that this is going to be the norm instead of the abnormal are high.

When we were planning for this year’s event, we had to take into account the forecast that was predicting 2 inches of rain to hit the area. Fortunately the storm moved east of us.

Those property owners that live on the river benefited from the sandbagging efforts. If we wouldn’t have sand bagged where we did, and we received the forecasted rain the potential of flood waters getting down town and into other neighborhoods, was high. Also there could have been damage to town infrastructure, mainly the sewer system.

Mayor John Zeiger