KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports, classifieds-Region 8 town may use inmates to alleviate flooding woes

Region 8 town may use inmates to alleviate flooding woes

By Josh Harvison - bio | email

TRUMANN, AR (KAIT) – Officials with the city of Trumann told Region 8 News Tuesday they were seeking assistance to help alleviate longtime flooding problems. Mayor Sheila Walters said she filed for a Regional Assistance program through the Department of Corrections. Walters said the request is to use inmates from Osceola to clear ditches and repair damaged culverts.

"It's difficult to have the manpower to do the things that we need to do after the disasters. If we could just get a little assistance to help open up the culverts, that will free up some of our street crew's time to do other projects such as cut the streets that need repaired and lay the foundation for it and get it covered," said Walters.

The city of Trumann was declared a federal disaster four times in 2009.

"Everything we're doing is based on what happened to us in 2009," said Walters.

Walters said the city is trying to recover from several storms, while performing everyday job duties and repairs by the street department.

"It's blocking the culverts and we have to clear those out for future rains," said Walters. "When you have five gentlemen on your street crew, there's no way we have the time to go out and maintain our culverts, to go get them all opened up, and still do our recycling program that we do and still repair the pot holes in the streets, and just so many issues that we take care of in the city."

According to the city treasurer, Trumann received $217,922.81 in federal aid from the January ice storm. The city was declared a disaster in April, October and December due to heavy rain and flooding.

"We have completed our ice storm and we have received the funding on that. We are now working on the April storms, which we lack two sections of road that were damaged during that period. We will make that our priority this year when we begin our street work and we're doing portions of that right now," said Walters.

Walters said several projects are on the table for 2010, which include a possible retention pond.

"Considering that the city of Trumann is such a low lying area, it's difficult to remove water from everywhere," said Walters. "We don't want our citizens flooded and the retention pond that we're working on, of course we did purchase that land in November of last year. We're working on a plan to actually dig some drainage."

"We're working with an engineering company right now, trying to get estimates on the cost of that," said Walters.

©2010 KAIT

 All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.