When Roanoke Rapids City Council approved a $250 Christmas bonus for employees from the $50,000 received from the sale of the old airport property, it was suggested and approved that the remaining money go to public works for street repairs.

Part of the $8,823 received is going for the construction of a swale in the back alley behind East Tenth Street to ease flooding problems businesses experience there.

City public works crews were continuing that construction today and are finishing laying pipes, the department’s director, Richard Parnell said.

A top.

Once tops are set, final grading will be done, said Parnell.

Work has been slow, as several water and sewer lines were hit. Water was only cut once, however, Parnell said.

Jacks Boseman, who runs a Nationwide Insurance agency from one of the buildings that is affected by flooding, told rrspin.com recently he was appreciative of the work the city was doing.

The damages from heavy downpour storms have extended from the 1019 building to the 1039 building. Boseman owns the 1037 and 1039 buildings.
The problem has been ongoing for five years.

Parnell said in a previous interview the swale construction comes after several complaints from businesses where water seeps in during heavy rainfall.

Parnell said the work is expected to cost a couple of thousand dollars. A plan last year to do $50,000 worth of curbing and guttering to address the problem was scrubbed by council.

Parnell described a swale as something similar to a ditch. “It’s more like a depression to minimize the potential for flooding.”