COLUMBUS, Ind. (AP) - A flood unlike anything Columbus had experienced before laid waste an east-side neighborhood among its carnage in the city and Bartholomew County. Its 10-year anniversary is Thursday.
The floodwaters that spilled over from Haw Creek swamped Pleasant Grove, which lies just east of the Cummins Technical Center. When the water receded, a scene of destruction remained.
So bad was the damage that the city participated in a federal buyout program to purchase low-lying damaged homes, razed them and created perpetual green space to mitigate potential future flood damage.
In all, 48 flood-damaged homes were purchased and razed with $4.36 million in grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some homeowners declined buyout offers and remained, but the neighborhood had been changed forever.
However, a group of volunteers is trying to breathe new life into the neighborhood with a proposed pollinator park in the green space.
Such a park is designed to support pollinating wildlife such as bees, butterflies and some types of birds. Pollinators are necessary for the growth of some types of food humans eat.
Eric Riddle, who is part of the effort, believes a pollinator park would be a great addition to the area.
“Just look at Columbus 10 years ago and today. I would argue this area is the most different . it has the most stark difference,” he said. “This is where there’s an opportunity to develop. Most other places have been refurbished. This is a big green space. In a way, it’s a blank canvas.”
But FEMA has restrictions about how the green space can be used, Riddle said. New homes or other buildings, for example, are prohibited.
“A pollinator park is in the range of what’s allowed,” said Riddle, author of “Watershed: Service in the Wake of Disaster,” a book about the 2008 flood.
Creating a pollinator park would serve as a follow-up to a previous project in the green space. Columbus Signature Academy - Lincoln Campus students in 2011 completed the installation of a small orchard on the south end of Pleasant Grove Street.
The pollinator park project has been underway for about two years, and has been discussed with city officials, the parks department and with the public.
The cost is projected to be $100,000 to $200,000 depending on the features included, Rachel Kavathe, the project’s landscape designer, said previously.
The project encompasses 3.5 acres and includes a looped trail system, benches, an outdoor classroom and native grasses and plants that attract and support pollinators. A memorial marking the 2008 flood is planned, too.
Funding is being pursued through a Creating Places grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and would provide up to $50,000 match for local donations received, she said previously.
The original plan had been to break ground on the actual 10-year anniversary of the flood, but the process has been slowed due to required local, state and federal approvals because of the FEMA guidelines, Riddle said.
“I think we’ll be ready, after all the approvals have been given, to start (planting) in earnest in the spring of 2019,” Riddle said.
The pollinator park is a fine idea, according to a Pleasant Grove couple that chose to stay in the neighborhood after the flood.
“It will be a positive thing,” said John Quinn, who lives with his wife Ruth in the 400 block of North Mapleton Street.
“Hopefully, it will make it more attractive in the area,” Ruth Quinn said.
At the time of the flood, Ruth Quinn’s father, Dale Sidle, lived in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood in the 400 block of Pleasant Grove Street. Water reached 7 feet, 3 inches on the outside, and 5 1/2 feet on the inside, John Quinn said.
Sidle chose to stay and obtained a FEMA grant to renovate his home, which John Quinn did and made more handicapped accessible for his father-in-law. John and Ruth lived with the late Sidle for a while to provide help, but John also purchased the home on Mapleton from a flood-affected homeowner who had turned down the city’s buyout offer. The Mapleton Street home had about 4 feet of water inside during the flood, John Quinn said.
A relative now lives in the Pleasant Grove Street home.
While the neighborhood has fewer residents than a decade ago, John Quinn said it doesn’t bother him.
“We live in town, but do we really?” he posed, noting the vast green space around their home and few neighbors.
“It’s worked out to our benefit,” Ruth Quinn said about staying.
John Quinn said he likes to keep his property looking nice, and that a well-maintained pollinator park would be a good addition.
“I see a lot of pluses and few minuses for them to do something with it. He (Riddle) has done a very good job promoting it, and the lady (Kavathe) who designed it has worked hard,” he said.
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Source: The (Columbus) Republic, https://bit.ly/2M63iyT
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Information from: The Republic, http://www.therepublic.com/
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