Army Corps involvment discussed

County commissioners remain skeptical about getting involved with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when it comes to addressing Portland’s problems with flooding along the Salamonie River.

Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman returned to the commissioners Monday to report on his meetings with the Corps in Washington, D.C., last week.

The Corps was involved in flood control efforts in the late 1950s that led to the dredging of the river, and at the city’s urging its engineers have done a preliminary study.

But that study has not resulted in a report, and before signing on to help cover the cost of a more detailed feasibility study, commissioners want more information.

Geesaman said about $85,000 in federal funds have been spent so far for physical surveys and hydraulic and hydrologic modeling.

“The modeling for existing conditions is about 90 percent complete,” the Corps’ engineer Nathan Moulder told the mayor in an email. “At this point there isn’t a final product to hand over, but we are happy to share the data created.”

The next step, the mayor said, is a feasibility study that would result in a detailed report to determine whether the benefits of a project outweigh the costs.

The hope is that there would then be money available to help pay for the potential solution, but there is no guarantee.

“There’s never a guarantee,” said Geesaman. “But we’ll be at the top of the list. … If we do not move forward with a feasibility study, they’re not going to do anything.”

The estimated cost of such a study is $373,586, with Geesaman proposing the city cover $154,293 of the local match and the county cover the same amount.

Since the 2011 and 2015 floods, the city has worked with as many as three different engineers on flood control and the county hired the engineering firm of Butler, Fairman and Seufert to conduct a study of its own.

“I’ve read this thing over hours,” said commissioner Barry Hudson, paging through the Butler, Fairman and Seufert study. “This report says as a county we shouldn’t have anything to do with this. … I believe if you hire a company … we should be doing what they recommend.”

But commissioner Chuck Huffman said he didn’t interpret the report the same way.

“I’m not sure it says don’t do it,” he said, noting that the firm recommended against waiting on the Corps for action.

“We really have a two-pronged problem, the Salamonie River and Millers Branch,” said Geesaman, who has been working with Jones and Henry, Choice One Engineering and Gene Amlin on possible flood mitigation solutions.

He urged commissioners to keep an open mind on the Corps proposal.

“We’ve been trying for many years to get the Army Corps of Engineers to look at the Salamonie River,” he said.

“I don’t know that we have enough information,” said Huffman.

“I don’t have a problem telling the Corps we need a little more time,” responded Geesaman.

Hudson had urged earlier this month that all of the engineers looking at the problem come to a single meeting and review their proposals, but that’s unlikely to happen, Huffman acknowledged Monday.

Instead, there may be a series of meetings with each of the firms individually.