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WELLSBURG -- Residents of Pleasant Avenue approached City Council on Tuesday for a remedy to flooding there.
Ron Staffileno, who lives on the street, said since it was blacktopped, runoff from the adjacent hillside has been able to flow into his yard and basement. He asked city officials to build a curb along the street to divert water from his property.
Bob Sult, another Pleasant Avenue resident, said during the recent storm rain water came up to the curb in front of his home, washing mud onto the adjacent sidewalk.
"I didn't have any water in my basement but I know many people who did," he said.
Second Ward Councilman Paul T. Billiard said the runoff flooded a number of homes normally not flooded, and even if those residents had flood insurance, it doesn't cover groundwater.
"You could see water coming down the hillside like it was an ocean," he noted.
He and 4th Ward Councilman Charlie Harris encouraged City Manager Steve Maguschak to take at least temporary preventive measures while pursuing federal funding for a more extensive remedy.
It was suggested that the curb sought by Staffileno could be established during the upcoming paving project.
Mayor Sue Simonetti said she and Maguschak have applied for $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend a 48-inch wide sewer line under Pleasant Avenue from 30th to 12th streets.
Maguschak said the funding also could be used to build small suppression walls along the hillside to prevent tree limbs and other debris from being washed into storm drains descending from the hillside.
He said city crews had cleaned the drains a week before the storm but they still became blocked when it rained.
Simonetti said FEMA has been supportive of the project and awarded a $39,000 for preliminary engineering required. She said an added benefit is that it would be a less costly and complicated way to separate sanitary and storm sewers in the area, as mandated by the federal government.
The board authorized Maguschak to seek bids for the following streets: Beallmore Drive from Grand to Pleasant avenues; Charles Street from Eighth to 13th streets; Caldwell Avenue from Valley View Drive to Pleasant; Franklin Avenue from Ninth to 11th streets; Sycamore Street from Highland to Pleasant avenues; and Valley View Drive from the pump house to Pleasant.
Maguschak noted which streets are paved will depend on the bids and available funding.
In other business:
• Council members called for special meeting for themselves as well as the finance committee beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall to consider and approve a new health coverage plan for city employees. Since its previous provider dropped all cities, a new provided is needed by June 30.
• Simonetti said removal of the former GenPak building is moving forward, albeit slowly, with crews involved in removing asbestos from the structure. The building's owner has been ordered to raze the northern half, which was destroyed by fire in September, and then the rest of the building.