LETTER: City has to do something to mitigate west side flooding

To Ozaukee Press:

I am encouraged to hear that the City of Port Washington is talking about investigating solutions again to the flooding that occurs from the waters overflowing out of the holding area on the west end of Larabee Street.

I live on the corner of Crocker and Larabee, and the city continues to use our driveway and our yard as a spillway and holding pond leading to the flooding of yards and homes to the east of us.

I have heard talk several times about 100-year occurrences and now 500-year occurrences. Last month’s heavy rain was  the fourth time in 12 years that we have experienced flooding as a direct result of overflow water coming right down Larabee Street out of the retention pond on the west end of Larabee, and unless something is done it will not be the last. This is certainly a higher rate than your 100-year or 500-year occurrences, and each flood seems to be worse than the last one.

There are some reasonable-cost solutions that, while they may not completely eliminate the problem, would surely mitigate it and could be an effective start to solving this issue. But so far the city continues to utilize the same houses and yards as retention areas, damaging houses, destroying home values and exposing residents to untold amounts of bacteria and other infectious organisms.

To not start some of these actions because, and I quote a city official, “it may cause some flooding in other people’s back yards” is irresponsible. I would surely think the possibility of some backyard flooding might be more desirable than flooding homes?

Hopefully, the city decides to actually take some action to reduce the possibility and frequency of flooding in this area in the near future.

The city seems to have plenty of money to continue to fund new condo developments. What about taking care of the residents who are already here?

I look forward to hearing when the next public meeting regarding this issue might be held.

Karl J. Wildner
Port Washington