Broadway Street S.W. on Thursday afternoon: Finishing the job.
You will be relieved to hear that this is likely to be the last report on the great Southwest Broadway Street flood of 2016. Why? Because once Albany officials became aware of the problem, the city jumped into action, spent some days pumping away the ponding runoff, and on Thursday was finishing work on a permanent fix.
The problem was that this fall, runoff from the undeveloped acreage of the U.S. Department of Energy east of the street was inundating the street and a neighboring driveway, then flooding properties to the northwest. Apparently an underground drainage pipe shown on maps from the 1980s had become clogged or collapsed. The solution was to pipe the water about 150 feet to an existing city storm drain to the south. From there it can flow into Oak Creek and the Calapooia River.
Chris Bailey, public works director of operations, told the city council about the plan on Nov. 7. Ten days later it had been carried out.
The city also had planned to check whether the water coming off the Department of Energy land contained any contaminants. “We asked the DOE for test results of the surface water runoff but they do not have any, and have not been required to do any sampling of their runoff,” Bailey told me in an email this morning. “My staff is going to collect some samples and compare (them) to other sites. We don’t expect to find anything unusual, but if we do, we will let the DOE and DEQ know.” (hh)
Common sense tells us that we ought to have a City Council composed of folks like Public Works Director of Operations Bailey. She became aware of a situation. She reported it to City Council. Ten days later, Bailey had fixed the problem and everyone was happy.
The current occupants of Albany’s Power Base learned on November 9th that the citizens of Albany had voted overwhelmingly on a particular subject. Today is November 19th, precisely 10-days since Albany Overlords learned of Voter wishes, yet the Council has demonstrated that it is unable to comply with the wishes of the citizens. Perhaps it is time to, as Donny Trump puts it, repeal and replace those members of the Council who view the electorate with such contempt.
“…precisely 10-days since Albany Overlords learned of Voter wishes, yet the Council has demonstrated that it is unable to comply with the wishes of the citizens…”
Sorry John — That dog won’t hunt. Again and again and again: The M22-156 vote simply overturned the city ban. It had *nothing* whatsoever to do with exactly where the stores would be allowed… Lobby your specific city councilor if you live within the city limits if you have good ideas to that end…
It’s great when a plan comes together. Definition, solution, execution.
Thanks PWO
Do you know if there has ever been plans to develop that area?
No, I don’t know of any plans to develop the vacant land owned by the Department of Energy. (hh)