David Fankhauser, a resident of Nine Mile Road in Pierce Township, gave a presentation to the Pierce Township Trustees and meeting attendees during the May 11, 2016 meeting about the damage flash floods have been doing to his property.

David Fankhauser, a resident of Nine Mile Road in Pierce Township, gave a presentation to the Pierce Township Trustees and meeting attendees during the May 11, 2016 meeting about the damage flash floods have been doing to his property.
By Kelly Cantwell
Editor

Some of the residents of Nine Mile Road in Pierce Township talked with the township trustees about how flooding in the past few years has impacted their lives and properties.

David Fankhauser spoke at length about his experience. The flash floods have increased in the last five years or so. The water is so strong at times it starts pushing over a fence that also acts like a dam by catching debris that the water brings through his yard.

The debris is sometimes small, but can also be large pieces of flatrock that shakes the ground as the water pushes it down. Fankhauser blames the increased intensity of the floods on people cutting down forests, removing ground cover and building parking lots.

Mary Armstrong, a resident of Nine Mile Road in Pierce Township, brought some of the debris that has been swept into her property during flooding to the Piece Township Trustee meeting on May 11, 2016.
Fankhauser, along with other residents, showed photos and videos of flooding in their property.

“It is a critical situation,” resident Tom Harrison said.

Another resident blames the infrastructure on Hopper Hill Road and Nordyke Road. However, Clermont County Engineer Pat Manger said there really hasn’t been any development on Hopper Hill Road above Nine Mile.

The flooding is so strong that it could probably sweep a child away, said resident Dawn Carmosino.

Fankhauser believes there are solutions. Residents in the Nine Mile Creek Watershed in Minnesota have experienced similar problems and have found solutions that Fankhauser thinks could be applied to their problem as well.

“I know this is an era when people talk about how much government we want and how much government we don’t want but it seems to me that people’s health and safety and quality of life are, especially in a regional area, is an appropriate role for government,” Fankhauser said.

He requested that the township restrict development, maintain cover crops and make sure development waste is properly disposed of.

The county can only prepare for the regular storms, not the extremely bad ones, Manger said,

“It’s our understanding that there was over three inches of rain that fell on that area over a short period of time,” Manger said.

In addition, Nine Mile is 100 feet below Hopper Hill Road and there is not much Manger feels the county can do about the issues, especially because much of it is out of the right of way. The county’s job is to make sure the water runoff from the road is directed through natural, longstanding waterways. The landowners on Nine Mile built their houses at the base of a large incline, Manger said.

“There’s not really a whole lot I can do,” Manger said.

When the water comes down off of Hopper Hill Road, it crosses Nine Mile in three areas, all of which have culverts. The second system got clogged recently, but should be working now, Manger said.

Nine Mile is a county road, Trustee Alan Freeman said, so the township will need to work with the county on a solution.

However, resident Elizabeth Crawford is frustrated with the county. The last time flooding left a lot of debris on her property, the county did a great job cleaning it up, but this time they told her they would not help.

“I don’t think they care about us,” Crawford said.

Manger isn’t sure why the engineer’s office might have cleaned up Crawford’s yard the last time. However, he said the office’s work is generally contained to the right of way.

Whatever happens, it will not be easy or quick, Trustee Bonnie Batchler said. She expects that Freeman will be the trustees’ contact with the county.

“I feel for these people. Those videos are just horrible so hopefully we can work as a county and come up with some kind of solution,” Batchler said.