FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant (DR-4223) for Detention Pond Awarded
FEMA has obligated federal funds for construction of a 5-acre detention pond behind 7th street. The City of Smithville received the award letter from the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. This has been a long time coming and there is now light at the end of a very long tunnel for those residents who have sustained recurring damage from multiple flood events over the past several years. BEFCO Engineering can now begin designing the detention pond. Concurrently, Request for Proposals (RFP’s) will be published for a construction contractor to build the pond. The City of Smithville began the hazard mitigation grant process 16-months ago shortly after the 2015 Memorial Day flood event and disaster declaration (DR-4223). The cost of the detention pond is approximately $1.1M with a 75/25 match. Matching funds ($275k) have already been secured and/or budgeted. The money will be used to construct a detention pond 15-22 feet deep to provide drainage relief to a 256-acre flood-prone area of our City which includes 7th street. The detention pond will be designed to mitigate a 10-year storm event which equates 6.2” in a 24-hour period --- or 40 acre-feet (13,000,000) gallons of storm water runoff. Runoff that is stored in the pond will be discharged by pump into the existing drainage system once the storm event has ended and the drainage system has recharged / cleared. Bottom line, receiving FEMA funding assistance is a significant milestone and the detention pond will be built as soon as possible---without raising taxes and without incurring debt. It is estimated that construction will take approximately 120 days and will begin in the April/May timeframe. A more definitive schedule will be published in the coming weeks. Congratulations Smithville!
