BELLMEAD, Texas (KXXV) — The city of Bellmead's drainage department is working on preventative and corrective maintenance on drains. Rainfall earlier this year resulted in water back ups and flooding in many areas.
- The month of May in 2024 witnessed 15 inches of rainfall making it the wettest month in the area for the last few years
- The city of Bellmead has two drainage maintenance worker positions open. Anyone interested can apply online
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"Lately there's been so much debris floating down, it's never been cleaned up and over time that's just like having a big damn back there," Michael Knudsen said.
Michael Knudsen's backyard is right next to one of Bellmead's drainage areas. He's lived there with his family since 2001. He tells me they've experienced flooding in their backyard when the drains were not cleaned.
"In my backyard, I have a chain-link fence out back. Sometimes that water will get so high it'll come up inside the chain-link, but again it never gets in the house," Knudsen said.
The city says rainfall earlier in the year caused water back ups and flooding in many areas. Now, the drainage department is working on preventative and corrective maintenance on the drains throughout Bellmead.
"It's important to keep these drains clean to prevent flooding in the areas and it's important to remember that a lot of these situations, the storm water runs off into another body of water so we want to make sure that water is as clean as possible when it gets to creeks, rivers or lakes," Bellmead Public Works Director Craig Rice said.
Public Works Director Craig Rice says cleaning the drains not only helps water quality, but quality of life for residents.
"It takes a community to make a community great. Any help that we can get to clean up the streets and clean up the drainage or prevent that stuff from getting into the drainage," Rice said.
He tells me right now the city is only at a operation and maintenance standpoint with drainage issues.
"We want to do those major infrastructure improvements. We know that the community needs it. We know that there is hotspots for it. It's really about funding," Rice said.
