Four Starkville streets could be added to the capital improvement list of necessary drainage improvement projects at the board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night. The four streets include Oktibbeha Drive, Dover Court, Starr Avenue and Worley Street.
“The drainage list is a living document in a way because as we complete projects, there are always new projects that come on that we’re made aware of,” City Engineer Edward Kemp said.
The drainage improvements are estimated to cost $27,227 for Oktibbeha Drive, $38,655 for Dover Court, $14,350 for Starr Avenue and $21,850 for Worley Street.
“We’ve made a lot of (drainage) improvements around the city so these are four new projects we’re adding to the list,” Kemp said. “They’re not prioritized. We’re just adding them to the list with a very conceptual cost just so they can be incorporated on the list so we can really start doing some of the design and planning on them,” Kemp explained.
Kemp said the drainage issues on Dover Court are due to poor piping installation, which is becoming a trend in Starkville.
“We’ve determined the pipe, which is a plastic pipe, was installed unsatisfactorily, which we’re seeing a lot more of that around town,” Kemp said.
The plans for the Dover Court drainage improvement involve removing and reinstalling the pipe entirely.
During the Board of Aldermen work session Friday, the board discussed potential steps to remedy similar issues moving forward. Mayor Lynn Spruill said she thinks creating a position for a construction project manager during Starkville infrastructure
projects would be helpful.
“We have come to the conclusion that perhaps a construction project manager would be a position that would be very helpful for the installation times when these things start going in the ground,” Spruill said. “We can be there to monitor them and make sure they’re embedded properly, the materials are the proper materials, the pipe going in is the proper pipe. And we could share this position between (Starkville) utilities and (Starkville) Engineering.”
“So that when we have projects going in, we can get that right on the front end and we aren’t going back and fixing it later on,” Spruill added.
Ward 3 Alderman David Little agrees the position would be beneficial in the long run.
“I think they would certainly pay for themselves,” Little said. “From the money they would pay on the backside.”
“I think it would be money well spent and it would serve to keep us from having to go back and make developers tear it out,” Spruill agreed.
Kemp said he also agreed that more construction oversight could be helpful during installations. He also said the oversight could allow for more complex installation opportunities, like concrete piping installation.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker suggested that it may be time to start looking at drainage from a regional standpoint with regional water detention.
“Is there the opportunity to look at where we might be able to look at capacity and water quality issues with other public properties or other areas that might be worth investigating to see how they might improve (drainage)?” Walker asked. “We know we’re not going to be able to pull the density out but how we might be able to reduce the impact of stormwater?”
Spruill said the regional perspective could be a beneficial change.
“Right now we’re kind of doing (drainage installation) as a development-by-development process,” Spruill said. “You can’t go back to areas that already have a hard surface on them and do much but you can look downstream of that a little bit like parks and areas that are already in existence that might not be geared to that and kind of do a little retrofit.”
“Since we’re looking at our parks anyway, that’s a good way for us to take those parks and maybe add that additional use to them,” Spruill added.
Kemp said moving forward with a more regional water detention would require locating public property in the right areas. Potential changes to Starkville’s stormwater ordinances were also discussed to improve drainage.