Rather than installing curb and gutter, ideas now are leaning more to constructing some retention basins up above Main Street in Pioche.
County commissioners voted unanimously Monday at their regular meeting to make that decision to cancel the curb and gutter project and tabled the item on the agenda.
In late July, commissioners discussed some of the problems that had arisen regarding the proposed agreement with Greenfield Environmental Trust LLC. At that time board members decided not to act on a funding agreement item, primarily because Chairman Paul Donohue was absent from the meeting.
Donohue said instead of installing curb and gutter, thoughts are leaning more to building retention basins up above Main Street.
“We still plan to work with Greenfield about such basins and stopping the water from getting to the streets in upper Pioche, rather than making it a big old canal for it to go rushing down through.”
Donohue explained the reason to stay with Greenfield is, “because they have the responsibility of keeping the EPA hazards off of people’s property.”
County Planning and Building Director Cory Lytle had said earlier the issues with Greenfield “lie with post-agreement and the scope of work with what the county will do and what the trust will do.”
He also said with the kinds of rainstorms Pioche can sometimes experience, as happened even recently, “A three-foot curb and gutter is really just channeling the water down the street toward private property, so we’re pushing the idea of having basins put in.”
Lytle explained, “This is not new stuff. We did this just a few years ago with Sunrise Engineering (the county’s engineering firm), and got a very good analysis including those rare 100-year type floods that are just intense.”
His recommendation was “to contain the water in the basins and keep the debris from washing down, or it will just be the same as it has been.”
Donohue said Greenfield initially wanted to have the county and road department fix up the area and have the town of Pioche take over after completion, “Do a whole bunch of stuff and pay for it, and then they would reimburse us.”
However, commissioners felt such an agreement would leave them in jeopardy for something Greenfield might decide not to pay for, “and we’re not going to do that,” Donohue said.
Assistant District Attorney Franklin Katschke recommended having a conference call with Greenfield in the near future to discuss the matter further, to which Donohue said he wanted also.
