Columbia approves project in hopes to fix Again Street flooding
UPDATE: Columbia’s city council unanimously approved the Again Street project Tuesday night. $200,000 is expected to go toward buying and demolishing a house at 1105 Again St. to solve basement flooding issues.
ORIGINAL STORY: Columbia Public Works wants to buy and demolish a house in central city to try and fix decades of flooding in the area.
The city council will consider the plan to spend $147,500 to buy the home at 1105 Again Street, and another $52,500 to demolish it. Karie Watson, the home’s owner, has decried the lack of progress made on mitigating basement flooding since 2015, including her own. Watson shared videos of the rain water rushing into her basement with the council then, expressing concern with high levels of E. coli found in that water when it makes its way to Again Street Park across the street.
“I was going to sell it, but I said ‘You guys keep offering to buy it, so I’m ready,” Watson told the Columbia City Council June 20.
The city has been aware of the flooding in that subdivision – near West Boulevard Elementary and the Columbia/Boone County Health Department – since the residential area’s construction in the 1950s. A report in the 1980s identified it as a potential site for stormwater mitigation, and was considered a top priority when the city formed its Stormwater Division in 1992.
Since then, the city has chipped away at the area with various projects. In 2003, the city bought the home at 1107 Again St. to get closer to the stormwater pipe. That pipe, and a nearby sewer line, run directly underneath that and Watson’s properties.
Watson told the council she thought the memo from the city didn’t capture what life was actually like for homeowners who have spent hundreds of dollars to repair homes from flooded pipes and landscapes.
“This has been more than a nuisance, and these homeowners have decades of empty promises and long-forgotten, unfinished work orders,” Watson said.
Mayor Brian Treece said he did not think simply buying Watson’s home would rectify the problem, and hoped Columbia Public Works would bring more information on how it plans to fix the problem, if they approve the sale. The city also suggests building a new stormwater “detention” facility near the Health Department.
