By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FAIRFIELD - After hearing six new flood-prevention options presented to City Council Monday, resident Larry Snider remarked: "I just hope that something happens."

But it won't be anytime soon.

Mayor Erick Cooksaid council probably won't decide until midsummer which options - ranging from $48,000 to $8.98 million - to pursue for fixing flooding along Pleasant Run Creek.

Work won't begin until next year because capital improvement funds won't be available until then - unless projects are approved by council as emergency legislation, he said.

The city already has received a $2.5 million federal grant - supplemented with $860,000 in city funds - to buy and demolish 23 homes that were damaged after heavy rains June 14-15.

The first meeting with those 23 homeowners and state officials about the buy-out process is 7 p.m. today at Firehouse No. 2.

The flooding caused an estimated $1 million damage to 100 homes along the creek.

Engineer James Rozelle told council that 55 homes along the creek - between Resor and Nilles roads - were in the floodway. The homes were built in the early 1970s, before the floodway was defined by the federal government.

"If (plans for) those homes were brought to the city today, they would not be built," Rozelle said.

Among the potential remedies he suggested was an elevated floodway channel on the west bank of the creek, opposite where homes would be removed, at a cost of $388,000.

Another option would be to build a 3- to 4-foot-high L-shaped concrete floodwall in the middle of Banker Drive after houses are removed, and east to cross Crystal Drive. It would cost $233,000.

Council also could spend $48,000 in sanitary sewer repairs, and $100,000 to flood-proof five or six homes with walk-out basements along the creek, he said.

Also on the list was up to $185,000 to divert water from Winton Hills subdivision behind the Gilmore Road Meijer store, which Rozelle explained to council on Dec. 1.

For $2.67 million, the city could build an elevated floodway channel from where the east and west forks meet near Dan Court, south to Sir Lancelot Drive, where one of the 23 flood-prone homes is located.

The most expensive option would be to build two new retention ponds along the west branch near soccer fields south of Resor Road, and south of John Gray Road in Hamilton County. That would cost $8.98 million.

Rozelle did not endorse any specific recommendation. He said the most important step would be to remove the Banker-Crystal homes, if owners accept the voluntary buy-out. Those homes account for 53 percent of the residential damage north of Resor Road, he said.

"We don't want to make any arbitrary decisions," Cook said. "We recognize that everyone wants every situation considered. But I can't predict what council will do."

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E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com