On June 17, council approved an ordinance to appropriate more than $932,000 from Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the fiscal year 2023-24 budget to fund the drainage projects in the town, according to a council agenda memo. No timeline has been given yet on when projects would begin.
The details
At the meeting, council members had a list of projects to choose from, which included but were not limited to Johnson Acres, Village Way and Old Justin Road.
Officials said the projects should help with drainage and mitigating flooding on roadways.
One project on the list was on Charyl Lynn Drive, where rainwater runoff has exceeded the capacity of the ditches, so a detailed hydraulic study and recommendations would be developed.
Mayor Rick Bradford said projects should be paired with community education.
“If we’re going to clean out these culverts, we have to educate those residents that they have to be maintained and you can’t decide to go put in other projects that are going to affect this drainage without permits and [other necessities],” Bradford said.
Town Administrator Erika McComis said the town has to look at the issue from an overall perspective—the town is in a rural area—and that there is a lot of flood plain there. She asked council for its preferences for projects, and council decided to have specific projects be brought for its consideration in August.
The background
In July 2023, Argyle’s town engineer presented preliminary findings on drainage concerns within the town as provided by town staff and residents. The costs associated with the presented projects were conceptual costs only, and staff would work with the town engineer to move forward with the projects using a bidding process.
