Jefferson City Council to vote on placing stormwater utility fee on August ballot

The Jefferson City Council is set to vote Monday on putting a stormwater utility fee on the August ballot.

Public works says the city has had five flood events over the past eight months, most recently last week.

Residents on Green Meadows Drive experienced the worst flooding last week when water covered the road, stranding people in about a dozen homes on the other side of the high water.

“We were unable to get out of our neighborhood for probably a day and a half due to the rising of the river here, the Moreau River,” said Gary Wheeler who lives on Green Meadows Drive.

“Whenever we moved into the neighborhood, we knew the possibility of this happening, so we just accept it,” Wheeler said.

Right now, the Public Works Department has a stormwater budget of $360,000 a year. That amount of funding does not allow the department to make any proactive fixes or make many needed changes, such as a solution to stop flooding from happening again on Green Meadows.

“Basically what you would do, you’d need to elevate the roadway ,” said Matt Morasch, the director of public works. “It could range a million (dollars), $2 million, there’s a range, to elevate you know it’s a pretty lengthy section of road that would have to be elevated, re-laid.”

If put on the ballot and approved by voters, the fee would bring up the city’s stormwater budget to about $2 million a year.

The fee would be $3.50 a month for a single family household and would increase by 2 percent each year.

Wheeler said he would support the stormwater utility fee if the city has done its part to make sure there are no funds from other areas of the budget that could be moved around.

“I would support it if it hits the ballot in August,” Wheeler said. “Infrastructure in Jeff City — it’s old. We’ve gotta take care of our neighborhoods.”