Drainage fix plan doesn’t wash with Polo residents

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POLO – An engineering plan to correct a drainage problem on the south end of town didn’t suit Polo City Council members.

They rejected the plan earlier this week as too costly and probably ineffective.

“I don’t think this is going to solve the problem,” Alderman Norm Carroll said Monday, as he looked over drawings from city engineers Willett, Hofmann & Associates, of Dixon.

The plan was aimed at correcting runoff down Pleasant Street past Centennial Elementary School to East Oregon Street, and it carried a price tag of $51,857.

Heavy rains this spring poured down Pleasant Street, blocking Robert Tomman’s driveway at 501 Oregon St. with dirt, gravel, and debris.

Street Superintendent Craig Telschaw said city crews helped Tomman clean the mess from inside his garage, which sits several yards back from the street.

Carroll said part of the problem is runoff from the school and its parking lot, which has only one storm drain that cannot handle heavy rains.

Willett Hofmann’s plan calls for construction of a concrete wall with a drop inlet at the southwest corner of the school property and installation of two drainpipes from the wall – one under Pleasant Street and the other diagonally under Oregon Street.

Carroll said the plan isn’t sufficient because the water would have to flow into the ditch beside Pleasant Street to get to the enhanced drainage system.

“The water never gets into the ditch. It runs right down the street,” he said.

Mayor Mark Scholl said
he will contact Willett Hofmann about coming up with a less expensive and better solution.