Jeff Kay took most of the city manager’s report time in last week’s City Council meeting to discuss the upcoming rainy season, a time of year that has many fearing a flood of epic proportions, thanks to a projected El Niño event.
“The city is aware of the state’s emergency declaration regarding El Niño,” Kay stated. Though he did not announce any specific preemptive actions, he did take note that the State of California has done so, on Sept. 21 declaring a state of emergency to support recovery of several counties already hit by the irregular weather phenomenon and in anticipation of more damage to come.
Last week the City of Cloverdale became the first jurisdiction in the state to follow up, based on City Attorney Alex Mog’s statement that “we can declare an emergency due to the existence or the threatened existence of conditions that cause extreme peril to safety of persons, property, or public health within the city.”
Supervisor James Gore, whose 4th District includes Healdsburg as well as Cloverdale, indicated he would bring the issue up before the Board of Supervisors.
El Niño is an occasional climate phenomenon where sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer than average. This can lead to extreme rainfall in the southern U.S., such as the San Diego/Los Angeles area, but warmer and drier weather in the northern region of the West Coast.
With Sonoma County’s location mid-state, the coming winter is simply uncertain: Wetter or drier? If drier, we have the reservoir levels to be concerned about and the possibility of less available water for drinking or agriculture. In a way, it’s almost easier to take pre-emptive caution for a rainy season than a drought.
So the City is shifting from reactive maintenance to a proactive, multi-departmental strategy, Kay outlined in his comments, to mitigate localized flooding. “We spent time during your budget [discussions] on this issue,” he said. “This is something that was already important and part of our work plan, but we’re trying to be responsive to what could be a really challenging year. So I wanted to share a few of the things we’re working on at this point.”
Specifically, Kay pointed out progress over “ponding issues” on Powell Street where basin repair is completed. At Healdsburg and Palm Avenue, in the so-called Ward Street area, similar ponding issues “were completed very recently,” he said.
“We have three large projects that are capital improvement projects funded in the budget,” he continued. One of those is the Grant Avenue storm drain repair near Hwy 101, where work has already begun.
At Willow Glen Court just west of Byron Gibbs Park, a larger capital project is currently being engineered, so it’s not likely to be finished before this season.
“And we’re evaluating the Foss Creek bypass system that’s right pretty much behind me out here along Grove Street and Vine,” said Kay, gesturing to his left from his seat with staff at the City Council meeting. “We’ll list sediment issues and are continuing to explore a few different potential solutions to that, some of which are short-term and some are longer-term solutions.”
The recognition of the Foss Creek area is significant, as it’s where SMART recently targeted its preferred Healdsburg station location. One doesn’t even have to be an old-timer to remember canoes and kayaks paddling the waters of the Vine Street Shopping Center, where Safeway is still located, in 2014.
“When it rains as hard as it did last January, rainfall exceeds the capacity of our storm drains. Making sure the drains are clear and operational is a significant priority for the City,” said Public Works Director Larry Zimmer.
“You can imagine that our public works crews are spread really thin, really quickly, when they’re out clearing rain drainage areas,” Kay said. “If we can get just half an hour or so where the rain lets up, the system functions pretty well and catches up, but when we don’t get that we have challenges.”
The obvious solution is a systemwide upgrade to the drainage system. “There was some work done on larger pricing-out projects about a decade ago, and the numbers frankly are pretty astronomical, many multiples of what our annual general fund budget is. So I don’t think that’s in the cards in the near term,” Kay concluded.
It’s not quite just a wait-and-see situation, but the city manager was openly skeptical of making an emergency declaration. “At this time, we don’t see a strategic advantage for a city declaration,” he said. “Normally, the reason you might do that would be to access more money. I’m not aware of any money that’s out there that would help us at this time.”
Visit healdsburgemergency.org for updates.
