BOARDMAN — The first phase of Boardman’s $47 million federally-funded effort to eliminate flooding woes is well underway, and now the township needs residents’ input.

In collaboration with the ABC Water and Stormwater District, Boardman Township has begun a comprehensive engineering study for the Cranberry Run Flood Mitigation Project.

“To ensure the ultimate success of this historic infrastructure initiative, officials are launching a targeted community survey, calling on residents to submit historical flood data, personal accounts, and photographic evidence,” the district and township stated in a news release.

In October 2024, Boardman and ABC announced that the township had become the first in Ohio to receive the FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance grant, to the tune of about $47 million, with a roughly $12 million local match.

The first $3 million of the $35 million from FEMA was released not long after to allow the township and ABC to begin the preliminary engineering and design phase of the project.

The study announced late last week is a significant part of that work.

“We have secured significant funding to fix these long-standing water issues, but engineering a permanent solution requires precision,” said Mark Ragozine, Boardman Township Administrator and district spokesperson. “Our engineering teams need to know exactly how water behaves on the ground, yard by yard. By sharing your firsthand accounts and photos, you are providing the critical baseline data our engineers need to accurately design the new infrastructure. Participating in this study is a vital service to your immediate neighborhood and the entire Boardman community.”

The release states that the study “urgently” seeks insight from households located between Market Street and Glenwood Avenue, “especially those with recurring flooding or property damage during severe storms in recent years.”

Since 2018, Boardman has endured multiple 500-year to 1,000-year storms. Whether the July 5 macroburst, adjacent to an EF-1 hurricane in nearby Canfield Township, qualifies has not yet been discussed.

The flooding the storms cause affects the roads, and residents’ yards, but also floods parking lots and stores. Residents’ basements and garages back up, and the water is not all rainwater.

Officials have repeatedly explained that rainwater gets into the sanitary system through its many connections that exist there, and the system cannot handle it.

In the decades since the township expanded around the watershed, the streams have failed to keep up with the excess runoff, and blockages caused by erosion make the flooding worse.

The concept summary the township submitted — First to Ohio EMA, which approved it and passed it onto FEMA — states that the problem originated with the township’s expansion in the 1940s and 1950s, when the plaza and the homes around Cranberry Run were constructed with no stormwater detention. Houses were built right next to or directly on top of the streams, which were either channelized with block walls or completely piped.

Recent smaller-scale fixes in local neighborhoods, along with the construction of the Forest Lawn Stormwater Park, have helped, as was apparent on July 5, officials said. But there is much more work to be done before Boardman’s flooding woes can be minimized to a degree residents and businesses will likely find acceptable.

That, Ragozine said, is why the study is so important to the process.

The data-collection phase and subsequent engineering analysis should take 12 to 18 months to complete. This evaluation of the watershed is meant to ensure the proposed upgrades can withstand future severe weather.

The news release states that, in order to streamline responses and maintain technical accuracy for the engineering model, ABC is asking residents to respond to the survey with a focus on three specific types of flooding events:

• Street ponding: wherein water is collecting or flooding on the street, making it difficult for cars to drive through, or unsafe for pedestrians.

• Yard inundation: in which stormwater covers a large portion of a resident’s yard, creating ponds for longer than a day, sometimes causing property damage. This may also include a stream coming out of its banks, or storm system flooding.

• Sanitary backup: when stormwater and wastewater is pushing upward out of basement floor drains, toilets, or sinks. This may appear clear at the time, but comes from the sanitary drains or any drains connected to a sanitary drain in a basement.

Residents can access and fill out the online survey immediately by visiting https://www.abcwaterdistrict.com/. The district asks participants to upload any digital photographs they have taken of past flooding events directly through the portal.