Lauck, Wilson make plea for help to MoDOT commission
, Richmond News Staff
11-09-2009
For Linda Lauck, it was a chance three years in the making.
She stood Tuesday afternoon facing the MoDOT Highway Transit Commission at Kansas City’s Hilton President Hotel to ask them to help tame Keeney Creek and stop its destructive flooding.
After all, she told them, it’s a problem she believes MoDOT has helped create.
Her husband, Donnie Wilson, sat in the audience with their neighbor, Becky Craven. Another neighbor who lives behind Wilson and Lauck on Missouri Highway 210’s north side, Chuck Pugh, stood behind Lauck at the podium.
She told the commission she and Donnie knew of the 50-year floodplain their home just outside Orrick rests in when they bought the land in 2006. She asked, “Does that mean we’re going to flood every [time it rains] two inches? Because that’s what we’re getting.
“There’s no ditches to the west of us. The ditch to the right is higher than our ditch and it’s full of debris and weeds,” she said. A floodplain map and pictures of water rising up to their home’s front door painted a picture of what Lauck called a “fishbowl” – hills behind them, 210 built eight feet too low to block water from pouring into their front yard and their home, including Wilson’s diesel repair workshop, at the bowl’s bottom.
MoDOT has already cast money at the problem, she said. In 2002, the Missouri Highway Transit Commission settled claims from multiple landowners along 210 for all past, present and future damages. MoDOT paid multiple property owners shares of the $130,900 settlement and have since declined further payments or work on the ditches.
“All we’re asking for, is to get the ditches cleaned out,” she said. “And possibly, a tube put in. We don’t want a tube that’s going to be looking like this.” She explained the picture of the corncob-clogged tube in front of Easley’s Auto Auction, about a quarter mile south of them.
The picture of the tube was taken in July 2009, Lauck said. The worst flooding happened May 14. Flooding lasts seven to eight hours at a time but she said that’s enough to cost thousands to repair and dry out their property.
Help might or might not be on the way, as it has been from the people Lauck and Wilson can convince to listen. State Representative Bob Nance (R-36) helped them get a foot in the door to address the commission. Ray County Commissioners Mike Twyman and Allen Dale, along with Mid-America Regional Council grant writer Molly McGovern, helped start a $1,289,185 community development block grant application.
Those funds, if approved, will help the concerned landowners establish a levy to block the water, raise a southern railroad bridge – also built too low – that obstructs water flow and further blocks up the creek, clear brush, dirt and debris from the ditches.
“But if we don’t get that, then we’re going to be sitting there in our little fishbowl, waiting to drown,” Lauck said. A tube between their home and Craven’s would help considerably. She invited the commission to visit anytime they want to see the reality she and Wilson deal with yearly.
“I’ve lived there since 1986,” Pugh said. “(210) did create problems in the area. She lives in the bottom of the bowl, I live in the edge of the bowl . . . There’s been times I’ve had a foot and a half of water in my yard.” He added the water is gradually weakening the foundation of his home. Lauck added that if Platte County, where the creek starts, gets rain, Lauck and Wilson, Craven and Pugh get flooding.
“If you’re going to put money into this, put money in to solve this problem.”
The commission didn’t pledge guaranteed money or assistance. They didn’t make Lauck any promises. They didn’t say a great deal, short of “Thank you” and a few questions about the dates of the photos.
But outside the Hilton President Hotel’s Aztec Room afterward, Lauck felt she might’ve said enough.
“I kind of like this public speaking,” she said, followed by a smile.
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