A Saratoga resident who lives close to the river, Bob Thrasher, brought concerns about flood control to the Saratoga Town Council at the Jan. 5 meeting, wondering what plans were in the works for 2016.
Mayor Ed Glode clarified that the lack of activity was due to the long wait for a ground penetrating radar study, which was determined as an improper tool in November. “Since then, we’ve toured the river with Army Corps of Engineers, and we’re going to tour it tomorrow (Jan. 6) with FEMA,” Glode said. “We believe if we choose to go in there and dredge the river, remove some rocks, whatever we plan to do, we can do that in the winter months.”
Thrasher emphasized how dangerous the situation is for boaters and residents on the river to not have the flow properly controlled, describing intense high water last year. According to Thrasher, “Sandbags as we know them are not an adequate solution to flooding in part because of the average age of residents along the river.”
Residents need to move the sandbags, however it will require a community effort to get the heavy, deteriorating sandbags out of the way, councilperson Faust added. Thrasher requested a more proactive approach to prevent flooding rather than dealing with it when it happens.
“My issue with sandbagging at this point is our river is impaired to the point that it’s not going down the middle of the river anymore. It’s banking off, it’s shooting back and forth across the river,” Glode said, describing a current that flows below layers of sandbags that erodes the bank.
Thrasher said he estimates that flood control and river restoration are two different objectives, to which Glode admits the town was mistaken in their prioritizing of flood control while presenting their long-term plan.
The problem of prioritizing was made known to Glode during the master plan surveys, when residents voiced flood control as the second biggest concern in town. “Safe passage of water through town turns out to be our high priority,” said Glode.
The council moved to sign the Wyoming Water and Wastewater Agency Response Network (WYOWARN) agreement at the meeting after the town attorney reviewed the contract. The attorney only highlighted that the council should be aware of the obligation of reimbursement to an assisting neighboring town should Saratoga call upon help. The council determined that the agreement was low-risk.
The next Saratoga Town Council meeting will be at 6 p.m., Jan. 18 at the Saratoga Town Hall.
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