North Lewisburg’s village council was flooded with complaints of waterlogged houses and yards at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Residents living near Curtis and Dooley drives expressed concerns to the village council about stormwater flooding in their yards, ranging from ruptured clay tiles to overflow.
Resident Ashley Cozad asked when the village would help fix her yard, which has flooded beyond usability. Her situation was shared among other residents.
“It’s not just me, because water is going everywhere,” Cozad said. “We’re willing to let you guys fix it, and you can do whatever you need to do. We just want it fixed the right way so we can use our property.”
Various residents said the issue has been recurring for years, and the heavy rainfall at the beginning of the month didn’t help.
“Look for a solution, because we’ve been sitting here for 13 years and nothing has been done,” said resident Greg Austin. “I’m just asking for something to be looked at. Let’s do something about it rather than push it off to the side or filling a ditch and letting it run into your neighbor’s yard.”
Village administrator Andy Yoder said the village is trying to work with residents on dealing with the flooding issues.
He said the village is looking past issues like what creating ditches would cause. He said he’s aware of the flooding problems caused by more than just the recent heavy rainfall.
“Sometimes it rains so much that regardless what you do, you’re going to have problems with it,” Yoder said. “Sometimes, there’s too much water for even a good system to take away.”
Mayor Cheryl Hollingsworth said the village is working with the engineer from the wastewater plant on solutions. She said, “we’re going to continue working on it, and we’re not going to ignore it.”
Also at the meeting, the council approved a motion for the village to start looking for other banks that can make sure the village can get a better return on its certificate of deposit (CD) investments.
She said she’d like to take money acquired from interest and roll it into the village’s CDs rather than the general fund. She said it’d be a minimal amount, but “at least it would give us an opportunity to increase the base.”
The council asked about taking it to a six-month interest renewal rate, but eventually voted to have it be on a 12-month renewal rate.
“This is emergency money that we’d only use if there was a total downturn in the economy in order to pay our loans and keep things moving,” Hollingsworth said. “I don’t see that happening in a six-month period of time, hopefully, as that would be catastrophic at all levels.”
Also at the meeting, Yoder brought up the opportunity for the village to extend its electric contract with Interstate Gas Supply in an effort to reduce rates.
He said the village’s current contract expires in 2020, and some options include staying on the current contract or extending it up to 2023. Though the village’s could get cheaper rates with a contract extension, he said there’s a possibility of losing out on a better offer if the village takes an extension.
Members of the council insisted on “riding it out” until 2020 and seeing where that could lead.
Later in the meeting, the village approved the placing of roll-off disposal containers for residents to use during spring clean-up week. Yoder said a special recycling dumpster for steel will be placed, which can be turned in for funding “a little extra income” for things in the village like fireworks.
Events highlighted in the meeting that will occur in the near future include the Virginia Davis Run for the Cure on April 29, free community yard sales that don’t require permits from May 11 to 13 and spring clean-up week from May 12 to 18.
In cooperation with the Mechanicsburg Police Department, there will also be a medication take back day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m May 12. Residents wishing to dispose of unwanted prescription medication are encouraged to drop it off at the Village Municipal Building, 60 E. Maple St., North Lewisburg.
Finally, it was agreed the May meeting shall be moved to Wednesday, May 9, as opposed to Tuesday, May 8, in light of election day. The meeting will still occur at 7 p.m.