HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — New Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell presented a $78 million budget to city council on Monday night, highlighting infrastructure as a priority.
On Tuesday, he said part of that includes investing in the need for flooding mitigation in the city. This comes on the heels of another major flood event in Huntington last Thursday.
“With those core priorities are public safety, investing in infrastructure and growing the economy, so I hope what you saw in that budget was putting the money where our priorities are, and that’s what we hope to execute here,” Farrell said.
For Jim Clayton, who has lived in flood-prone Enslow Park for almost 70 years, he is encouraged that something will finally be done about the backup of water in his community.
He said the flooding issues in Enslow Park really did not get bad until the nearby development of Kinetic Park, a business park on the hill above Fourpole Creek. He said in the past ten years, there have been three significant floods where he feels the development and the lack of cleanup in Fourpole Creek played major roles.
“Basically, right here you’re looking at ground zero,” Clayton said referring to Donald Avenue, where he lives. “This is where it happens. When it comes off that, and it doesn’t make that turn right there in that creek it goes right across, goes down Wilson Court and then comes right here and guess what? It’s on. And there’s nothing going to stop that water.”
Farrell announced on Tuesday that part of the budget includes the city repairing and opening up a secondary emergency route on Ritter Boulevard to give Enslow Park residents another way to get out when the bridge is flooded.
He said other multi-million dollar projects from last year are still in the works to separate the stormwater and wastewater systems, but ultimately, it will take time and major funding to repair and replace all of the aging infrastructure.
Farrell said major changes to Fourpole Creek will take studies and collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“We speed it along by continuing to maintain urgency with it, right? All of it comes down to funding,” Farrell said. “We’re working with the federal delegation that might come through the Corps that will help us do some more studies. We’re already working with some of the folks to remediate some of the problems along Fourpole Creek, moving blockages, making sure the water can flow freely and making sure our floodwall system is operational so those things happen immediately, those long-term fixes that require funding, we just engage with them every day.”
Clayton is hopeful the work he has seen so far from the city, like employees dredging the creek in the days after the flood, is a reflection of what he will continue to see in the days ahead.
“I’ve seen more things happen in two days than I have in the last 50 years, in a positive, so like I said, it’s not going to get fixed overnight,” Claytons said. “There’s long-term things that can happen. There’s midrange things that can happen, and there are things that can happen right today, and fortunately that’s happening.”