Study revisited

The next piece of the puzzle in solving Portland’s long-discussed flooding problem could be a multi-million dollar detention pond in the city’s north side.

Portland Board of Works met with representatives from Butler, Fairman and Seufert on Thursday to take another look at the firm’s preliminary study into the creation of a 40-acre detention pond southeast of the intersection between Morton Street and county road 100 North.

The study was first commissioned by Jay County in 2016 and is in the preliminary stage without a proper survey of the land or a complete engineering of the project. Portland Mayor John Boggs said the city will take the next few weeks to explore funding options before committing to any agreement with the firm.

The artificial dry basin is designed to deter the potential flooding of Millers Branch during high water situations by collecting inundated water from the natural pond between Moser Engineering and Fort Recovery Industries’ buildings along county road 100 North and storing it so it doesn’t overflow into other areas of the city.

The keyword there is deter. This proposal will not eliminate the possibility of downtown Portland flooding, as it did three times in summer 2015.

“This is not a fix for downtown flooding. … this is another piece of the puzzle,” Butler, Fairman and Seufert’s John Speidel Jr. explained at the beginning of the meeting. The two ponds would act like a seesaw in which one side gains more water from the other during high water situations and gradually transfers it as needed.

The Indianapolis-based firm’s engineer Mark Chemeliwskyj clarified the detention pond would only have water in it when the natural pond north of it floods. Standing water would lead to problems for the nearby airport because it would attract unwanted wildlife.

Chemeliwskyj estimated the project could cost upwards of $2 million based on how much it would cost to acquire the land and move the roughly 100,000 cubic yards of excess soil produced by the creation of such a pond.

The proposal calls for a 42-inch pipe from the existing pond to a proposed detention basin so that water can be transferred to the dry pond during high water situations.

The land surrounding the natural pond is planned to be modified so that there is more of a slope and thus expand the amount of water that can be carried by the pond and the proposed artificial basin.

The biggest unknowns surrounding the project involve questions over where the excess dirt would be moved to, how/if the land can be acquired and how the city would pay to do any of this.

Boggs said money was a key factor in backing out of a three-year planning period between the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before it was set to expire in October.

The mayor said the city will explore potential state programs that could assist in funding the Butler, Fairman and Seufert proposal.

The Corps plan, set to cost $7.9 million, called for the creation of a 40-foot-wide ditch that would carry overflowing water from Millers Branch to Cartwright Ditch and eventually the Salamonie River.

Chemeliwskyj said his firm’s proposal is more immediately appealing than the Corps’ because of its cost effectiveness and the ability to bypass state and federal governments’ approval and involvement in the project, calling it solely a “local project.”

“That’s one of things I like about (the detention pond project),” Boggs said in reference to the lack of higher-level government entities being involved.

The mayor also believes he can acquire the land needed to create the detention basin without exercising imminent domain, which he said is a last resort to land swapping or buying the land outright from the owner.

Geographic information system (GIS) data indicates the desired land at the southeast corner of the intersection of Morton Street and county road 100 North is owned by the Gildersleeve Family Revocable Trust, which lists a New Jersey address. Gary Gildersleeve owns adjacent land to the east.

“We hope it is a friendly negotiation,” Boggs said.

Gildersleeve and his family’s trust own about 106 acres along the south side of county road 100 North. If all of the land is acquired, the excess acres could be used to store excess soil, Boggs said.

County commissioners initially approached Gildersleeve about the property in 2016, at which point he did not give a firm yes or no on a potential sale. But in 2018, then-commissioner Barry Hudson indicated that acquiring the land would be too expensive.

The firm suggested to Jay County Commissioners when presenting their study to it years ago that excess soil could be utilized in the proposed runway extension at Portland Municipal Airport. That project, which was also engineered by Butler, Fairman and Seufert, would call for around 140,000 cubic yards of dirt.

Speidel, however, now says that possibility is a “longshot” because the uncertainty brewing over whether or not the runway extension to 5,500 feet from the current 4,000 feet will receive funding from the Federal Aviation Administration before the Sept. 30 deadline.

The FAA failing to act by that deadline would likely delay the airport project for at least another year while Chemeliwskyj said the detention pond project could be completed as early as next fall.

Regardless, Boggs said his involvement with the airport project has taught him there is a viable market for dirt and he’s confident the city and the firm can find something to do with it.

Boggs and fellow board of works members Steve McIntosh and Jerry Leonhard took no other action at the meeting.