SHELBY – What comes next for the City of Shelby in efforts to reduce flooding of the Black Fork River?
That was the topic of conversation Monday night during a City Council meeting that included discussion about the cleaning and maintenance of the river now that a proposed joint ditch petition between Richland and Crawford counties has failed.
Mayor Steve Schag, who filed the petition in 2021, spoke to council about the urgency of exploring new options with a troublesome stretch of the river that has led to floods in the city since the 1800s, including after a torrential rain in 2007.
That flood in 2007 sent the Black Fork over its banks, flooding roads, parks, businesses and homes, leading to evacuations.
So what comes next?
Schag said next steps are being considered again.
“There are some beginning conversations that I’ve been having with Erica Thomas from Richland Soil and Water to see what the next step is,” Schag said.
The City of Shelby and rural community members filed the combined ditch petiton. It asked the two boards of county commissioners to examine a process that could clean and do annual maintenance on about 15 miles of the Black Fork.
The process ended in July. Attorney Jon Burton, the commissioners’ legal counsel, advised not enough signatures were obtained during the process and that improper procedures were followed during a public hearing on the topic.
Councilman Garland John Gates said Burton’s opinion read as more of an indictment, rather than an opinion.
“In 25 paragraphs, it explains what the law had required to be done,” Gates said.
“He goes through about five more pages and cites instances where the commissioners did not do what the law required and the county engineer did not do what the law required,” he said.
Richland County Commissioners ended joint ditch petition conversations after learning of the flaws, including the fact an additional 5,837 signatures were needed on the petition.
“That petition, which was filed back in 2021, is dead and gone,” Gates said. “It would have to start from scratch all over again.”
What’s a better approach?
If a ditch petition were to be revisited, county commissioners would not be able to resume any conversations on their own or initiate any efforts.
“The county commissioners have to be dispassionate in this process,” Gates said. “To think that the commissioners could advise the petitioners what to do is not proper.”
Schag said having legal advice on the front-end of the process would’ve been beneficial to all parties involved.
“There was no argument to be had from our standpoint,” Schag said. “I accepted that legal opinion and now it’s time to step back, take a deep breath and say ‘What can we do?’ and think about what’s a better approach to this.”