BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) — Sunday’s storm dropped a lot of water in some places. One of those places was Boardman.
It was the first true test for the Forest Lawn Stormwater Park. It’s located where Market Street Elementary School once stood. It was built to relieve the flooding problems that have plagued the neighborhood for decades.
The Stormwater Park is now a creek, but it was built to become a pond when heavy rain occurs, and then slowly release the water into Cranberry Run and, eventually, into Mill Creek.
On Sunday, between 2 and 3 inches of rain fell over the park in about 30 minutes. Shortly after the rain ended, former Boardman Administrator Jason Loree, who was instrumental in the design of the Stormwater Park, gave an assessment of the situation.
“And when we got down there, flawless. It was holding back the water as designed. It was slowly releasing. We did have some light damage with some of the older trees there. So we have a crew coming out soon to help tidy it up, but the park as designed, flawless,” Loree said. “It worked as designed, and when I got to the scene, it was in the state of remission. So we knew it was slowly releasing and everything was hydraulically working.”
Eight years ago, three blocks south of what is now the park, a heavy summer rain left the street underwater and the people living there wondering what to do.
“The amount of water, it just doesn’t make sense,” Loree said.
They complained to the township trustees, asking for help, and it came in the form of $4 million in government grants to build the park. This time, there were no high water complaints from anyone in the neighborhood.
“And the best part was when we designed it, we did a computer model, right, because you’re trying to rely on technology for smart design, and we ran those models, and they said, ‘Hey, this looks like it’s going to work,’ and to see from model to proof of concept work is just fascinating. I’m so happy it’s been effective,” Loree said.
Loree said while there were no complaints about flooded basements in this neighborhood, there were reports of sanitary sewers backing up.
The Stormwater Park was not designed to stop all the sanitary sewers from backing up, though Loree did say he believes the Stormwater Park did alleviate the sanitary sewer backups.
While the Stormwater Park has helped prevent flooding around the former Market Street School, the township is taking the next step to prevent flooding elsewhere.
The next step in solving Boardman’s flooding problems is what’s being called the Cranberry Run Flood Mitigation Project, and it focuses on the area between Market Street and Glenwood Avenue and Route 224 and Shields Road.
What people living in the area are being asked to do is complete a survey. What they’re looking for is historical flood data, personal accounts and photographic evidence of the flooding that has happened in the neighborhood. The survey can be accessed through the website of the ABC Water District.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing $37 million of the $47 million project. According to Loree, the survey is a requirement of the grant.
This project will also include redoing the area around the Boardman Plaza to eliminate the flooding there. Boardman Township also has to come up with the remaining $10 million, but Loree did not think that would be a problem. If everything comes together as planned, work should begin sometime late next year.