As you know, the Halloween weekend of 1998 was particularly devastating for many west Wichita homeowners that live close to the Cowskin and Calfskin Creeks. The heavy rains that occurred that weekend resulted in the flooding of approximately 170 homes and various businesses in the area.

Because of that flood, the City of Wichita began looking at ways to reduce flood losses should a flood of that magnitude occur again. Realizing that we will never be able to stop all flooding because the Cowskin and Calfskin Creeks are, in fact, natural floodplains, our studies have shown that if we could reduce the depth of flooding by 1-1/2 to 2 feet during future floods of the same magnitude, much of the flood damage that was experienced could be avoided. Our goal has been to identify projects that could accomplish this.

We are here today to announce that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has indicated that they are in a position to approve funding for one of the projects we have proposed, a channel improvement on Cowskin Creek between Kellogg and Maple. This project, estimated to cost about $3,250,000, will widen the Cowskin Channel by constructing a 300 ft. wide overflow area immediately adjacent to the channel. The Corps will pay about 65%, or $2,112,500 of the project cost, while the City will pay about 35%, or about $1,137,500. This project will have positive benefits for nearly 80 homes in The Dell, Hidden Lakes, and the Miles Hidden Lakes Estate areas of our community.

We are currently in the process of having our proposed environmental mitigation plan for this project approved and we anticipate that we will begin to acquire right-of-way before the end of this year. If the right-of-way acquisition goes smoothly, construction could start in the latter part of 2004.

This project is one of several that we have been looking into to help the flooding problems in our City. Other projects are proposed for funding with local funds through our Capital Improvement Program. We continue to seek federal and state assistance with the funding of additional larger projects. As the events of a few weeks ago showed us, adequate drainage must be one of our highest priorities.