(Okoboji)– Meeting in special session this (Tues.) morning, the Okoboji City Council heard updates on flooding in that community and lakeshore bank collapses. City Administrator Michael Meyers…
“You know we did see quite a bit of street flooding all throughout the community. The Chalstrom Circle area, Summer Circle area, other low-lying areas in our community were flooded that Friday night, Saturday morning and even into the week this week. In addition to that we saw some drainage events that caused some property damage that we’re looking into. And then of course and perhaps the most significant, probably between 10 to 15 major shoreline collapses within the city of Okoboji alone.”
Meyers says given the scope and extent of the lakeshore damage in Okoboji, the city is looking at ways to help expedite the restoration process…
“I would say the city of Okoboji has one of the more restrictive lakeshore landscaping ordinances in the lakes area, and rightfully so. But in this instance, a catastrophic emergent situation, we want to be partners with these community members and we don’t necessarily want to stand in their way of protecting their property and shoreline restoration. So the next couple of days the city’s going to look into our lakeshore landscaping ordinance and see if there’s any low lying areas we can at least temporarily look to suspend in an effort to move things along efficiently and make sure that community members can get these shorelines re-built without much interference. Again, we want to walk side-by-side with them, we don’t want to stand in front of them.”
The city council will meet in another special session at 8:30 am Friday to consider that.
The council also this (Tues.) morning heard concern over the amount of debris that’s in the water. Meyers says they’ll be in contact with Emergency Management in trying to get the state involved in the clean-up…
“I think the residents here don’t feel necessarily as though it should be their financial responsibility to remove and all that, it’s just an overwhelming amount of debris. And understandably so there’s some concern about that. Some of the discussion that happened here this morning was can we use our local leaders here in Dickinson county to put pressure on state officials to see if there’s some sort of resources out there that can be brought in to help clean up the lake.”
The council also heard from neighbors living across the street from the ongoing construction at Sherwood Forest Park. Several said they experienced significant property damage due to water running off the site, especially during Friday night’s torrential rainfall. City Administrator Michael Meyers said he found a drainage intake in that area that had been blocked. He says the obstruction was removed. Neighbors also expressed concern over a small amount of silt fence on the construction site of the park, saying what is there wasn’t properly installed. Meyers says the city will be meeting with those involved with the Sherwood Forest Park project in an effort to get the concerns addressed.
