To the Editor:

The Washington City Council stumbles again.

Washington’s a water city. Sometimes the water’s where it’s supposed to be. Sometimes it’s not. It’s commendable that City Council tackled the “not” by improving storm water collection feeding through the city into the Jack’s Creek Basin. The problem has inflicted emotional and financial harm over and over again to those living in the affected neighborhoods for far too long.

But why won’t the project be allowed to be successful? Council allegedly intends to “cut and run,” leaving a bottle neck restricting the water way out-flow capacity. Mr. Allen Lewis, public-works director, indicated (Jan. 23 council meeting) we are “one significant storm away” from having flooding issues because the Charlotte Street bridge culverts are being left undersized. Apparently, without installing larger culverts or removing the bridge to open the water way, the millions of dollars spent to date went “for naught.”

Actually, “for naught” is the wrong way to look at it. It is the “for gain” we need to worry about. The large gain in run-off water sent surging down the “fixed” system to back-up somewhere. What new areas will now experience high water? What old areas even higher water? At the council’s public comment session (Feb. 27), a significantly smaller “flow through” capacity rate was noted for the constricted flow trying to squeeze under the current Charlotte Street bridge compared to its having high capacity flow-through box culverts.

Basically, it’s about money. What the city not doing the job right might cost our folks affected by the high water versus what doing the job right will cost the city. On the one hand, property owners pay for expensive repairs after each flooding. Even with flood insurance, whatever it doesn’t pay, you do. Repeated flooding negatively impacts your property’s value. On the other hand, the city must pay to remove the Charlotte Street bridge (lesser cost) or reconstruct it (much greater cost). One suggestion (Jan. 23 council meeting) was to just wait until it’s closed for some reason, like the Brown Street bridge, and “try” to do something about it then, i.e., kick the can down the road until the bridge “dies.” This passes years of damage costs onto property owners and raises the specter of absolutely frightening tax increases to cover much higher construction costs years from now. This is wrong thinking on two accounts.

First, local government borrowing costs are as cheap as they’ve ever been in a quarter century. A delay will be much more costly to the city in the long run. Second, failing reconstruction, removing the bridge now corrects flow restriction problems and prepares the site for future reconstruction. We got along without the Brown Street bridge for years, so why not the Charlotte Street bridge? Which is worse? Driving or walking a few blocks extra to cross Jack’s Creek or watching expanded neighborhood flood damage because you wouldn’t?

The City of Washington needs to do the right thing and solve the flow restriction issue now!

DR. MICHAEL E. McCLURE
Washington