City Hosts Public Meeting on Stormwater Utility

The City of Paducah hosted a public meeting Wednesday evening at city hall dealing with the proposed stormwater utility.

A large crowd braved a rare November winter storm to hear the presentation and ask questions.

The meeting was moderated by John Lyons of Strand and Associates, the engineering firm that has been working with the city on the flooding problems for the past 18 months.

Lyons explained how a stormwater utility would operate, and also gave a presentation on how this could be funded.

He explained that the most common method of funding is known as an impervious rate structure. Impervious surfaces refers to areas on a parcel of land that do not allow rain water to permeate, such as rooftops, driveways, sidewalks, and patios. Lyons said the formula for figuring the fee is based on what is known as an equivalent residential unit. The formula looks at only two types of property, residential and non-residential. Residential includes single family dwellings and duplexes. All other property would be considered non-residential for purposes of these calculations.

The approximate average equivalent residential unit, (ERU), for Paducah is 3,500 square feet, and there are approximately 37,000 ERUs in the City of Paducah. The estimated cost of the entire project is $43 million which, according to city engineer Rick Murphy, would likely be funded with a 30-year bond issue. Lyons stressed this is the best way to figure the fee, but also explained that they are taking recommendations from the public as to any other ideas they might have, even including a tax if that is what the people really want, to fund this. Eric Hickman, City of Paducah stormwater drainage engineer, told West Kentucky Star that the Impervious rate structure is used by most stormwater utilities in the United States.

Strand and Associates will make their recommendation to the Paducah City Commission on November 27th. They welcome all comments and suggestions in order to come up with the best possible solution.