The Windom city council passed two motions at their recent meeting that will seek to build and improve the dikes in the city toward better water control in the event of future floods.
The record flooding in July has prompted the action, as the city had to move quickly and saw the water hit marks higher than every before recorded on the Des Moines River. The city council will meet again tonight to discuss how to pay for two dike projects possibly totaling $200,000.
The first motion passed at the previous council meeting agrees to spend up to $25,000 improving and repairing a dike that was already in place, but was not high enough for the recent flood.
City Administrator Steve Nasby explained the actions that the city had taken.
“There’s a dike approximately three blocks north of the Highway 62 bridge along the river. That was built in 1970 to help protect that part of the neighborhood and the business district from flooding. So when the prediction came in that the river was going to crest not only a little bit above 1969 levels, but at one point, perhaps four feet above levels, we were like, Okay, the levy that’s there is probably not going to be adequate,” said Nasby.
Scott Veenker of SVE, LLC of Windom was brought in to do grading and dirt moving and the topsoil was removed from the old levy. Then two to two and a half feet of clay was added to the levy to prepare for rising water.
For more details on this story, see the July 10 edition of the Citizen, as well as the upcoming July 17 edition of the Citizen.
