by Dennis Dalman
The city of Sartell will pitch in for the cost of a flood-mitigation feasibility study for the west side of the Mississippi River.
The council authorized the cost at its March 11 meeting.
There is a particularly low level of land along Riverside Avenue, such as by the DeZurik manufacturing plant. That area – and other parts of the city – experienced serious flooding in spring of 1965 when record levels of piled-up snow caused the river to rise drastically and inundate the land.
April Ryan, a city engineer with Short Elliott Hendrickson, said Stearns County plans to reconstruct CR 1 from Sartell Street to 12th Street N., but first it wants to do a study of that low-lying land to determine if there are any possible ways to add engineering methods to the reconstruction project to prevent future flooding.
DeZurik has offered to pay $10,000 toward the $38,700 cost of the flood mitigation study. Stearns County and Sartell will split the cost of the rest, close to $10,000 each.
The results of the flood study will be shared with the council this August.