About a hundred people packed into a Volusia County church Monday night for a town hall meeting about Edgewater residents’ flooding and stormwater concerns, where discussion also often turned to concerns with new development.
Edgewater Mayor Diezel Depew and Interim City Manager Jeff Thurman hosted the meeting, held at the church “to allow for a larger occupant load than is permitted in the City’s Council Chambers,” according to a city press release.
Throughout the two-hour town hall, discussion largely focused on how the city plans to move forward from past mistakes: a berm that should have never been built and makes flooding worse; a generally poor history of maintenance, with important stormwater drainage swales and canals often becoming overgrown.
The city of nearly 24,000 residents is also in a time of transition with some key leadership.
Edgewater’s former staff engineer recently resigned and is under investigation, following allegations that he deliberately allowed certain residents to flood by manipulating and/or neglecting stormwater infrastructure. Edgewater City Council recently approved paying up to $15,000 for a third-party investigation, Depew said.
Thurman, previously Deputy Director of Environmental Services for Edgewater, stepped in as the interim city manager in September, when Edgewater City Council voted out the previous manager. That, too, was a staffing change prompted by flooding.
Repeatedly throughout Monday’s town hall, Depew and Thurman validated residents’ concerns and tried to reassure those who spoke in front of the group, often using the same phrase: “We’re here now.”
“If they're not building to standards or the code, there will be a stop work order; I will personally see to that,” Thurman told one resident worried about ongoing construction near his home. “We’re here now.”
For the most part, city leaders’ attempts at reassurance seemed to work.
“We have seen the changes that have occurred in your efforts, and we do appreciate it,” said resident Matthew Vick.
Another concern raised Monday night was about whether the city has a protocol for informing the public when flooded roads become impassable. Some residents said during September’s weekend flood, they were caught off guard by roads that remained seemingly “open,” despite being too compromised by water to safely use.
“Unfortunately, that was during a separate administration. We had a separate city manager,” Depew said. “I couldn't even get him to answer the phone that day, when our residents were flooded. I was very disappointed.”
But “we attempt to advertise on social media, on our website when roads are closed,” Thurman said.
RELATED: After weekend flood, Edgewater calls for special meeting to address concerns
In the last few months, staff have kept up with more regular maintenance of important stormwater drainage infrastructure, cleaning out roadside swales and driveway culverts to allow for excess water to drain more easily during storm events, Thurman said.
City leaders also pointed residents to an online map of development activity, and listed off a range of different grant-funded projects already underway to address stormwater drainage and flooding issues, including a Resilient Florida-funded vulnerability assessment due back next year. That assessment will also help establish which roads in the city are most vulnerable to flooding, Depew said.
As a lifelong Edgewater resident himself who’s also experienced flooding, Depew said, he relates to and empathizes with residents’ concerns. He and Thurman also said they want to pursue a cooperative approach, by working more closely together on flooding with other nearby municipalities and Volusia County.
“We hear you, we understand you. We're listening. We're doing all that we can,” Depew said. “When we all come together, there's no telling what we can accomplish.”
Edgewater City Council is set to vote on a building moratorium next month. Meanwhile, discussion on a potential countywide moratorium was slated for Volusia County Council’s Tuesday meeting.
In the longer term, an update to Edgewater’s stormwater master plan is underway and should be finished by the end of 2025, Depew said. The city’s most recent plan is from 2014.
