City seeks sewer project funding

The City of Portland can use its $50,000 in wind farm economic development funds for drainage work around Jay County Courthouse if it so desires.

Whether there will be additional county money contributed to the project is a decision for another day.

Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman visited Jay County Commissioners Thursday to request $200,000 from the economic development funds tied to the Bluff Point Wind Energy Center project. He is hoping to put together funding for an estimated $635,855 in drainage work in the area around Jay County Courthouse, having also asked for one-third to be paid by Portland Redevelopment Commission and the remainder by the city.

The project would involve installing storm drain lines in a “Y” shape, beginning on Pleasant and Commerce streets from their intersections with Walnut Street. The lines would run south and connect at Main Street, with a single line then running down Ship Street to the Salamonie River.

In his pitch to commissioners, Geesaman said the project will benefit the county by keeping water out of the courthouse basement during heavy rains.

He also noted that the city and county have been working together on flood mitigation.

“The city is the county seat,” Geesaman added, “and if we expect the downtown revitalization to ever happen, we need to continue to implement flood control measures like the courthouse project …”

Commissioners agreed that if Portland City Council so desires, it would be free to use the $50,000 in wind farm economic development funds it has already been allocated.

Any additional such funding, however, would be considered alongside other requests, and commissioners asked that any such requests be made by the end of November. However, commissioners president Chuck Huffman cautioned that there is only about $133,000 of the nearly $1 million in economic development funds from the wind farm that has not yet been earmarked.

During the discussion, commissioners, Geesaman and Ryan Lefeld of Choice One Engineering, which designed the courthouse drainage project, discussed the opportunity to retain more water in a detention pond north of county road 100 North if a spillway is properly maintained.

They also tossed around several ideas for diverting Millers Branch water, which has caused flooding problems in downtown Portland, to the east or west around the city. But Lefeld offered a word of caution.

“The biggest thing when it comes down to taking water and diverting it somewhere else is you’re going to want the (Army Corps of Engineers) to tell you to do that,” he said. “You guys don’t want to take on the liability … That’s one thing to be careful with.”

The Corps has been working on a flood mitigation plan for the city, but it is not yet complete.