Once resident Fran Skinness gets his teeth into an issue, the Austin City Council better be on its toes.

Wednesday, September 20, 2000

Once resident Fran Skinness gets his teeth into an issue, the Austin City Council better be on its toes.

Three years ago, it was the state of 12th Avenue NE and the poor drainage surrounding the street that was bothering Skinness. He came to meeting after meeting to address the issue. The city fixed the street and the drains in the end, much to the delight of neighborhood residents, but now Skinness has another issue on his mind.

The teacher and long-time Austin resident spoke to council members about fixing the flood problem during the citizen forum part of this week’s council meeting.

"I’ve been following the proposed flood buyout program in the paper," he told the council. "But most of the people that have contacted me don’t want to be bought out. We need more in the way of a program than buyout.

"We need to look at retaining ponds, channeling within the city, and East Side Lake. What a great place East Side Lake would be if we cleaned it up. I know it’s not ‘cost effective,’ but what is cost effective? Look at how long ago it was built and how long it took for the lake to fill up."

City Engineer Jon Erichson explained at Monday’s meeting that the county and the city had decided it was not cost effective to dredge the manmade lake at the moment.

"Farming practices have changed, and the study we did showed that it would take a couple years – not 60 – for the lake to fill up again," Erichson said. "Until corrections are made north of Austin to correct the erosion problem, it doesn’t make sense to dredge the lake."

Skinness also questioned the wisdom of flood-plain buyouts when the city already has a shortage of affordable housing.

"A lot of those homes were relocated," Erichson said, "so they didn’t actually leave the housing stock."

Skinness didn’t buy it.

"If I counted right, less than half of those homes were relocated," he said.

Tom Smith of the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority confirmed this morning that more of the homes were moved outside city limits than within city limits because of the more restrictive building codes in the city and prohibitive lot costs.

As for the resident’s question about looking at options other than buying the homes in the flood plain, the city waits for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is studying the report it prepared in 1979, before coming to Austin. Erichson said the first public hearing with the Corps could be as soon as October.

Council members advocated patience.

"I’m disappointed it’s taking so long," Third Ward council member Gloria Nordin said. "I would like to see the process speeded up so we know more, but there’s a lot to check into."

"Government takes time, and you can’t expect something to happen overnight," Second Ward council member Jeanne Poppe said. "The city is not ignoring what has happened."

At-large council member Dick Chaffee said a solution of some sort for the flooding was his personal mission, as well as the council’s.

"We’ll work with the Corps and anyone else to address this problem," Chaffee said. "We’ll have to use the experts’ recommendations, view and review those and make some hard decisions."