I am disgusted with the actions not taken by the Willmar City Council at the Nov. 5 meeting. For anyone to say that the storm water problem at 10th and Kandiyohi Ave Southwest is an "act of God" is ridiculous. If I have a bucket sitting outside during a rain and we get 4 inches of rain in one hour, how much rain is going to be in my bucket? Our intersection is not the same. The water at our intersection rises up to 25 inches!
So if we only had a 4- to 5-inch rainfall, where is it all coming from? When a rainfall occurs water from 192 acres of land flows to the intersection of 10th and Kandiyohi, whether above ground or through the storm sewer. At the same time water is filling the system on the southeast end of town because of all the blacktop in that area.
The intersection overflows due to the system backing up. The water simply has nowhere to go except to pool at the lowest point, which happens to be at 10th and Kandiyohi, and our land becomes the holding pond for all this water. The Jorgensons lost their home. The home in between us had five feet of water in the basement.
If you want a holding pond you can have it. Buy us out and turn this intersection into a holding pond. While the situation in our area is very bad, we are not the only ones in Willmar with a major problem. There are other areas which also experience flooding. For the City Council to state that this is not the city's fault is absurd.
The city built a system which depends on an 11-inch drop from downtown Willmar to Lake Wakonda. Most anyone will tell you this design will have a problem. Plus when the city continues to expand its blacktop (malls, parking lots, etc.) the problem is multiplied because of a lack of natural drainage into the ground. Buy the Jorgensons out, get Grass Lake done, create the natural holding pond at 10th and Kandiyohi and fix this issue now.
