HomeMy WebLinkAboutPress Journal ArticleSEBASTIAN RIVER AREA
Sebastian seeks drainage solutions
By Tony Judnich
staff writer
A major plan that offers
ways to decrease Sebastian's
drainage woes, such as re-
placing many swales with
curbs, sounds great to Eula
Hughes.
Hughes, a 15 -year city resi-
dent, says after it rains she
often gets frustrated by
storm water that lingers for
days in the swales, or
ditches, outside her Caravan
Terrace residence.
"Down by the swales, it
stays wet and you can't mow
the grass," she said Friday.
"You have to use a Weed
Eater to get the grass down.
It's terrible drainage."
City officials hope to ad-
dress such problems with the
city's master storm -water
management plan, which the
Sebastian City Council could
adopt Wednesday.
A major part of the plan
calls for implementing what
are known as Miami curbs,
which would "offer long -term
solutions to Sebastian's
drainage problems," City
Manager Terrence Moore
said.
Miami curbs are V- shaped
curbs that run along residen-
tial streets and are graded so
water can flow to storage
ponds at the ends of streets.
Such curbs already line some
streets near Schumann Drive
and in some of Sebastian's
gated communities, Moore
said.
Swales would be filled in
where curbs are installed to
allow storm water to flow to
the curbs.
City officials hired storm -
water consulting firm Camp,
Dresser and McKee Inc., of
Vero Beach in early 2001 to
help develop the storm -water
1 E ' G tk th
said 1,000 feet, or almost one-
fifth of a mile of Miami curb-
ing, would cost about
$116,000.
"Once the storm -water
management plan is adopted,
we'll initiate necessary
long -term capital improve-
ment programming" that
will determine how much
curbing would be installed
and overall costs, . Moore
said.
City officials say they
could use various funds,
such as city storm -water util-
ity -fee money and grants, to
pay for new curbs and other
drainage projects.
p an. L ro e, a compa-
ny's senior project manager, -tony.judnich@scn'DDs.com