Clarksville, TN – The National Weather Center is anticipating a rain event this weekend. According to the latest predictions, the rain may last longer in duration but it is not expected that Clarksville will see as much accumulation as last weekend.
Even so, the Clarksville Street Department is ready with equipment and personnel to address any excess water issues in the City including the Woodstock neighborhood.
“Our people are already in place,” said David Shepard, Director of the Clarksville Street Department. “We have the agreements needed with the property owners to access the area and do whatever we need to do to take remedial action if necessary.”
“We have taken significant measures already in regards to the flooding situation in the Woodstock neighborhood,” said Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan. “In order to address flooding, the City must get permission from private property owners to access the area and to bring the necessary equipment on the land to pump excess water. We did that as soon as possible after last weekend’s rain and the work began immediately.”
“We have consistently said the process will require two main phases. The first phase included purchasing property to dig a deeper retention pond on the property and that has been completed. This resulted in storage for an additional 5.2 million cubic feet of water,” explained Mayor McMillan. “The second phase of the project will include purchasing additional property to provide an emergency overflow system. The engineers have been hired and initial plans have been drawn. “
“It’s also important to note that there are property owners downstream from the sink hole. Our plans must address removing water from the Woodstock area in a way that doesn’t create more of a problem for those property owners,” said Mr. Shepard.
“We have not received any information that the flooding last weekend came close to the amount of water homeowners were dealing with in 2010 or 2011. What that tells us is that the additional storage we created is providing relief,” said Mayor McMillan. “We also realize that there is more work to be done in this area and we are moving forward as planned with the second phase.”
