MOUNT VERNON — Resident Tonja Kent expressed frustration to Mount Vernon city council members on Dec. 9 about the lack of progress on dike repairs in the city’s west end.
Kent said her property taxes went up on a house with no value because it is in an unprotected flood zone.
“As you know, I’ve worked for about three years on this now. I understand that there’s processes to things, but we’re still at a standstill,” she said.
“I understand that people are going down there and surveying things and doing things. But as far as mowing and moving debris, stuff like that is still not done on a regular basis.”
Kent said she is irritated and frustrated that city officials told her there is no time or person to write a grant for the dike repairs, yet the city has applied for a $20 million grant for new municipal buildings. She said she found several grants.
“I’ve been here for three years off and on at council meetings. I’ve never heard of these buildings. In the last six months, these are the top priority of the city,” she said.
“I find it very frustrating for people on the west end that still have to pay these amount of taxes on properties and at any time we could be flooded out.”
Tanja Kent
She said it appalls her that the city plans to build a $20 million structure without secure infrastructure.
“Not only are you putting people in harm’s way, you’re putting our community, our buildings, and the taxpayers money in harm’s way,” she said.
“But the frustration of west end people is when you work for 20 years to pay off your home and then your property’s worth is no value because you live in an unprotected flood zone that you pay property taxes on to your community for that many years.”
Studies underway for dike repairs
City Engineer Brian Ball said the city is conducting a door-to-door survey to determine elevations because some properties could get an exemption certificate from FEMA regulations.
“We have put significant money into surveying the dike. We’re doing hydraulic modeling because we don’t want to fix the dike to what FEMA [has] based on their 1975 computer model,” Ball said. “We want to think about fixing the dike to a 2025 computer model.”
Ball said the city plans to harvest walnut trees growing on the levee using money from the stormwater utility. Tree roots contribute to levee erosion.
The city is negotiating with three companies to harvest the trees. Small businesses will saw and dry the lumber for reuse in the new courthouse.
“That’s something we’re working out behind the scenes that would help with the future recertification. In the clear zone on the levee, there’s 2,000-plus board feet of lumber that we could use at a later date,” he said.
Ball does not know how much the timber harvest would save on courthouse costs.
However, he noted the significant thing is that many FEMA grants have a 1-to-1 cost-benefit ratio.
That means home values in the target area must, at a minimum, equal the repair cost.
“The federal government will not give us a project that’s less than a 1-to-1 ratio,” he said.
Council shares concerns about dike repairs
Councilman Mike Miller speculated that home values in the flood plain equal or exceed the cost of the three municipal buildings.
“We came up with the value of other buildings like Heartland Commerce Park and other properties the city looked at for this [municipal] project pretty easily,” he said. “I would think we could come up with values of homes on the west end relatively just as easy.
“This lady stood here and talked to us that for three years she has even brought grant suggestions to the city, and we filled out a grant application for $20 million for a building first when we have other options. I’m sorry. That’s all I have to say.”
Councilmen Mel Severns and John Ruckman concurred something needs to be done.
“I want to see us try to make some progress on this dike,” Severns said. “I don’t know what that means, but I hear you, and I share some frustration that we’ve got to see some actual steps made to get this rectified.”
“As someone who does not live very far from where she is, I also share some of the concern about that, and obviously that is a big concern,” Ruckman said. “To echo what Councilman Severns said, that’s something that I would like to see — I know that there has been effort put into it — but something I would like to see more progress on.”
Safety-service Director Tanner Salyers noted that he grew up on the Ohio River and that, in 1995, the river came right up to his door.
“If we would have stepped outside, we would have been in it, which is a little bit more imposing than the Kokosing River,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me about floods. We take it seriously.”
Legislative action
Also on Monday, council members discussed the proposed municipal buildings and gave the 2025 budget appropriations a first reading.
They also took the following legislative actions:
•Gave the first read to legislation authorizing the safety-service director to acquire employee dishonesty and faithful performance of duty insurance (council will hold a second reading at the Dec. 16 special meeting)
•Suspended the rules and approved paying a Then and Now bill of $5,117.46
•Adopted on the third reading an ordinance updating the codified ordinances
Parks and Recreation
Jim Brown updated the council on the Shade Tree and Beautification Commission activities for 2024. Highlights include installing an arch in Arch Park, qualifying Public Square as a Level 1 arboretum, and planting pollinators among sycamore trees at Hiawatha Park.
The commission started a program to remove 800 pear trees throughout the city. The trees are an invasive species. The goal is to replace 80 a year with a native tree.
Knox County Career Center students will plant 21 trees in the YMCA area. At maturity, the trees will provide 40% shade, decreasing the heat effect from parking lots.
