Nicky Boyette – Jim Helwig of the Springs Committee said at the March 15 Parks meeting that if the city had it to do over, it might decide to build City Hall beside the creek running through downtown instead of on top of it. The current situation constitutes a man-made hazard which last year required considerable expense and consternation, and there is still more to fix further downstream.
He said the committee has been studying Low Impact Development, which in simplest terms means mimicking nature, and for Eureka Springs in particular, an ecologically-based storm water management strategy.
Helwig said the committee has learned much from the Illinois River Watershed Partnership based in Fayetteville about effective use of rain gardens and permeable pavement, for example, and other policies designed “to neutralize or offset excess runoff by increasing infiltration of water.”
He encouraged commissioners to support a resolution urging the city “to initiate an integrated approach to storm water management and low impact development.”
Chair Bill Featherstone promised commissioners would discuss the resolution at its next meeting, April 19.