GIRARD — Flooded basements could be a thing of the past for some Girard residents as city council plans to move forward with the Wellman-Liberty drainage improvement project.

This will affect about eight houses in the Wellman-Liberty area where residents regularly have to push sewage out of their basements whenever there is a lot of rainfall.

“There’s nothing more, outside of a fire, there’s nothing more difficult for a citizen than to be pushing 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 inches of sewage out of their basement. It’s very, very disheartening to say the least,” said Mayor James Melfi. “This is an area that affects fewer houses than normal, but it’s still as devastating.”

This project was approved through the Ohio Public Works Commission to put in a detention basin on Mahoning Country Club property to slow the flow of rain water.

“A 1-inch rain over a four-to-six-hour period can actually cause more problems than 1-inch rain over a whole day because there’s time for the water to run off into the existing system,” said Dennis Meek, the city’s acting engineer and independent contractor managing the project. “The detention basin is designed to stop that. The detention basin holds the quick water that shows up and fills up quickly then it drains down slowly.”

Meek referenced a few unusually intense rain storms over the past two decades, one in 2003 and one in 2015 as examples of when this detention basin would have been beneficial.

“In 2003, I was one of those people pushing sewer water out of my basement, so I can’t imagine two or three times a summer with that situation,” Councilman Thomas Grumley said.

The total cost of the project is $400,000, with the grant covering $150,000. The other $250,000 will come out of the city’s sewer fund.

“We have $2.3 million in the sewer account, I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” said Sam Zarafi, city auditor.

The main concern from council was with the city having to make payments on the wastewater treatment plant project, and would Girard be able to afford both. Zarafi assured the council the sewer fund would replenish itself.Drainage work to begin