Bradgate looks at flooding solutions

After a meeting of Bradgate City Council Tuesday night, Mayor Kim Schultz said he would sign a petition to have new drainage relief tile installed in the city to combat flooding. The council agreed to have a new north/south tile line installed along the east edge of town, running to an outlet near the West Fork of the Des Moines River. Jasong Bendixen, a project coordinator with Jacobson-Westergard and Associates, Humboldt County’s main drainage engineering firm, had been working with residents in the town since last week, along with Humboldt County Emergency Management Coordinator Melody Larson. Both were in attendance at Tuesday’s Bradgate City Council meeting. “You have a 100-year-old drainage system that is full of tree roots,” Bendixen said of the crux of the drainage problems in the community. Tile lines are plugged, citizens basements are flooded and water is coming back in as fast as it is pumped out. The entire town of Bradgate is part of Drainage District No. 84, which also includes some area farmland. Bendixen said work was done on Drainage District 7 northeast of Bradgate last year, and said there is an additional 50 acres that drains into DD 84 that could be annexed. He estimated the project could cost in the neighborhood of $200,000, and gave a very rough preliminary estimate of costs to be about $150 per acre for the 800-acre district. Bradgate Council members agreed that a solution to the problem needs to be found. Bradgate City Council member Stephanie Johansen said her home on the east side of Bradgate has had four sump pumps running since last summer. To read more about the issue, pick up a copy of this week’s Humboldt Independent. Subscribing is easy, just click on the link at the top of the page.