Dieterich Village Board Hears More Concerns About Flooding

Last month's flooding in Dieterich was again a topic of concern at this week's village board meeting.

Five to six inches of rain fell in a relatively short amount of time, backing up the creek flowing through the village. Many village residents were present for a board meeting in July and others were on hand this week. 

Village officials have been working on the issue for several years, and are waiting on action by the US Army Corps of Engineers to straighten an "oxbow" in the creek. The move is expected to allow the water to flow more freely through the creek and out of the village.

Now there's another issue; the railroad is working on the trestle through the village. The work involves sinking concrete to strengthen the piers holding up the trestle and the concrete could cause added problems in the creek.

Village residents are being given out the phone number for the Corps of Engineers in hopes a volume of calls to the Corps could get some response.

Meanwhile, the Dieterich board learned that only one bid was received on a grant project, and the bid came in $100,000 over the engineer's estimated cost. The Board rejected the bid and will ask the State to re-bid the work in January in hopes that contractors will be a little more hungry for some work.

The Board also granted a one-year extension to Cory Niebrugge to complete a residential project in Hartke Subdivision, but decided to take back three other lots in North Pointe Subdivision and list them for sale. The lots had been part of a project where people could buy the lots and then help each other construct the homes on the lots. There was no interest in the project that had been proposed by former Alliance Executive Director Craig Nielsen to address a need for residential properties.