Rebecca Staebler stands on the bank of China Creek during a dedication ceremony off of Little Hanaford Road last May.
The application for phase two of the China Creek Flood Water Storage and Fish Habitat Project has been submitted, and the city council on Tuesday approved an amendment to increase the reimbursable budget from $2,200,000 to $4,573,850.
The latter total includes the costs for phase one and phase two combined.
“I’m here tonight to give you some good news. We’ve been working with the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority for the past few months to get this application in for phase two. Phase one was just recently completed,” said Kim Ashmore, public works director for the city of Centralia, when addressing the council on Tuesday night.
China Creek has caused a great deal of urban flooding and disruption to downtown Centralia after heavy rains in past years. In 2015, the city decided to take action to minimize the flooding by making a plan for creating flood water storage. Phase one focused on the land along Little Hanaford Road. Phase two will focus on the Agnew Mill Ponds area.
“Phase two is going to be similar to phase one. It is going to be rerouting China Creek through the Agnew Mill Ponds, installing a berm and and moving some material in there to create more pools to hold back water … It’s really a storage and fish habitat project. It will increase the amount of water we can hold back during heavy rains,” said Ashmore.
Ashmore said they will hopefully go out to bid for construction in early 2020 and begin phase two in spring or early summer of 2020.
Mayor Pro-Tem Max Vogt expressed that he fully supports the project and thinks it’s a worthwhile venture for the city.
“I think it’s a very important project and I've supported it from the beginning. Now that we’re halfway done, you have my full support to finish this project,” he said.
