Aberdeen, Hoquaim officials to tackle Harbor-wide flood plan
As far as Hoquiam Mayor Jack Durney’s concerned, addressing the Harborwide flood problem is the most important work today’s local officials will do.
Durney didn’t mince words when he implored members of his council to attend the workshop scheduled for this Thursday to talk with Aberdeen officials about a possible flood retention plan that would encompass both Aberdeen and Hoquiam.
“You have to take the day off — if you work evenings, you have to arrange a trade — you have to be there,” Durney said about the workshop at last week’s Hoquiam City Council meeting. “There is nothing more important that any of us will ever work on in our political careers than this issue of solving the flooding.”
The workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Grays Harbor Public Utility District’s Nichols Building.
The Harbor’s flooding problem, perhaps brought to the forefront nearly a year ago with record rainfall that led to disastrous landslides last January, has been a talking point for candidates campaigning for office, and will now see traction with Thursday’s workshop.
Among those scheduled to attend are the councils and mayors from both cities, Nicholas Carr, a Seattle area-based representative from Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office and Jordan Rash, conservation director with Forterra, a Seattle-based consulting agency whose focus includes restoration and land management.
Attendees will work to craft a master plan for a project that could include a dike system that encompasses both cities, a series of parks that double as retention ponds and the restoration of Fry Creek to allow for more efficient water flow. The result, officials hope, would be lowering the risk of flooding and the high flood insurance rates imposed on homeowners while at the same time raising home values.
Rash will lead the presentation, beginning with a brief overview of Forterra and its mission before leading a discussion to answer several key questions.
“The first piece is this master plan to say, ‘This is how we want our community to be, this is what we want it to look like,’” Rash said before asking the rhetorical question that the meeting aims to answer: “How do we then take that and mesh that with a flood-risk reduction plan?”
Rash said he jumped aboard the project about six months ago following outreach from Carr. Forterra, Rash added, will act as a partner to both cities to solidify the project’s master plan and find funding for the project.
Topping the list of potential funding sources, Rash said, is Floodplains by Design, an organization that has helped fund flood-management projects across the state.
Rash said projects like the one aimed at the Harbor’s flooding issue fall directly in line with Forterra’s Olympic Agenda.
“When we look at projects on the Olympic Peninsula, it’s about community, economy and environment,” he said. “What better than this project to cover all of that? It addresses all those things.”
Durney’s not the only official who recognizes the project’s significance.
“I think it’s very, very important — we have people who can’t afford a house because they can’t afford flood insurance,” Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson said. “It’s good that we can sit down with Hoquiam and put this together.”
The project’s implications aren’t lost on officials at the federal level, either, with Kilmer lending full support of the plan.
“To soften the blow of insurance and to keep rising tides at bay, the communities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen have come together to take action,” Kilmer said in a statement. “I’m proud to join with local stakeholders to work together to develop a plan that will address these water issues through innovative projects and resources that will protect our community while creating new economic opportunities.”
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