Water from last spring's Arkansas River flooding receded long ago, but the repairs to get the city of North Little Rock back to its previous state are ongoing, city officials said.
Last week, members of the North Little Rock City Council approved adding an additional $455,000 to their proposed 2020 budget for flood damage repairs to Dickey-Stephens Park and the golf cart shed at Burns Park.
Heavy rainfall in Kansas and Oklahoma led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release water from reservoirs in both states that eventually made its way downriver and into Arkansas, leading to severe flooding throughout the Arkansas River Valley and beyond.
This flooding caused millions of dollars in damage to North Little Rock's parks and riverfront areas, city officials said, and repairs caused by the rush of water is still underway.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said the city has multiple flood-related projects on the docket for 2020, but three of those projects will cost about $6 million. He said $3 million will be used to fix the city's hydro plant, $2 million will go to repairing Dickey-Stephens Park and $500,000 will go to Burns Park.
In July, the North Little Rock City Council established a special account to fund expenses related to the flooding as it waits on whatever reimbursement it will eventually receive from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Smith said he isn't sure when the reimbursement will come, but he hopes it will be soon.
FEMA officials over the past few months have gone out with North Little Rock engineers to analyze the damage done by the flooding, and City Engineer Michael Klamm said the repairs needed are extensive.
Chief Engineer Chris Wilbourn said North Little Rock's work with FEMA extends beyond the emergency repairs that were made during the flooding. He said the second aspect the federal agency works on with the city is the things that were catalogued as being damaged after the flood waters had receded.
"For example, the trails in Burns Park were completely covered in two feet of sand ... once that was all removed, [we] were able to identify the problems to the asphalt," he said.
Klamm said a lot of the asphalt in Burns Park and on the river's edge need repair. He also said parking lots, streets and trails were damaged along with several lots around the city's RV Park.
"In some places we couldn't even see where the trail was anymore," he said. "Also, sometimes the pavement was completely missing."
He said damaged asphalt won't completely shut down a road, but it's a problem that needs to be solved.
"Damaged asphalt interrupts normal travel," he said. "Potholes and pavement failures can cause a vehicle to get damaged."
Emergency repairs were also done to fix damage to Dickey-Stephens Park, but Wilbourn said the field needs some permanent repair work.
"We patched up some of the problems -- and I mean heavy on the word 'patched,' " Smith said.
Dickey-Stephens Park, which opened in 2007 near the downtown riverfront, is home to the Arkansas Travelers, a Class AA minor league baseball team. Through the independent North Little Rock Public Building Authority, the city owns the $40.4 million ballpark.
During near-record flooding of the Arkansas River, four sinkholes appeared during a game May 31, delaying play for 23 minutes while the holes were filled by the team's grounds crew. Another delay of 45 minutes occurred shortly before the next day's game started when sinkholes again opened.
Wilbourn said structural damage to one of the bullpen retaining walls was also discovered and emergency foundation repairs were done to fix it as well.
"The sinkhole by the beer garden was 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, but the depth of it was four feet," he said. "We still got to fix the sinkholes and along with it the irrigation system and the sprinklers. We will be working on that till April."
The sinkholes appear at Dickey-Stephens Park when the river elevation goes up, said Wilbourn. He said this is because the groundwater that is coming up underneath the field is taking materials and sediment with it when it gets pumped out.
After a few large sinkholes appeared after river flooding in late December 2015, North Little Rock spent about $450,000 to repair the sinkholes and replace underground drainage pipes. The city spent another $52,000 to replace a waterline and make additional improvements.
"What we have right now is a passive system that pumps out the groundwater when it reaches a certain point," he said. "What we are trying to do is create an active system that is constantly pumping out groundwater, making sure we don't have that problem again if it does right."
Wilbourn said the Federal Emergency Management Agency could potentially help with the funding of this "active system" as part of a mitigation plan. He said this idea is separate from the FEMA repairs commitment.
"FEMA will cover what it takes to get the ball park back to where it was before the flooding," he said. "We would have to apply for mitigation funds for the new water control system."
Wilbourn said the implementation of this "active system" probably wouldn't be ready until 2021.
Smith said the city only has mitigation plans for Dickey-Stephens Park because flooding to the hydro plant and Burns Park can't be avoided when the river rises.
"You can't build a levee big or tall enough to keep water out of Burns Park when it's built on the river," he said.
Metro on 11/18/2019