No quick solutions to flooding for subdivision

SIKESTON, Mo. -- On a 1901 Scott County map, the area now occupied by the Mini Farms subdivision has a different name -- "St. John's Lake." Mini Farms residents know they're in a low spot and expect some water every now and then.

"But through the years it's become progressively worse," said resdient Jim Marret.

Now every rain brings standing water around homes that takes weeks to drain away. With flooded roads, ambulances and delivery trucks won't come.

The subdivision's residents have some ideas on what changed to bring about the now-frequent flooding. Much of it has to do with the St. John's Drainage Ditch, which winds its way across the north and east of the subdivision before heading south, eventually passing through Sikeston.

Mini Farms residents say the farmer who owns land to the northwest of them cut a levee which would otherwise divert rain runoff to a small basin and into the St. John's Ditch instead of into their subdivision.

It isn't the first time an adjacent landowner has contributed to Mini Farms' problems, Marret said. In the 1970s, according to Marret, a farmer to the south of the subdivision interfered with the area's natural drain by first erecting a barrier and then leveling the land when the dam was torn down.

And it's not just farmers. When the Missouri Department of Transportation completed the new overpass north of Miner, they also made some improvements to the State Highway HH, which borders the subdivision to the south.

"They raised it considerably," said Marret. "It all contributes to our problems."

Many Mini Farms residents believe cleaning out the ditch and replacing culverts would help. While many assumed that the ditch has easements and therefore someone must hold them, that appears not be the case.

The formation of a consolidated drainage district in Scott County east of Highway 61 could be of some help, Marret said, but it would be at least several years before it is able to make a difference.

If there is any hope to be had, it would be that offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to developer Scott Matthews. The corps is slated to close the gap in St. John's Ditch just east of New Madrid and install a pumping station there by the fall of 2003.

As for other options, Scott County commissioners have encouraged Mini Farms residents to look into forming a neighborhood improvement district to build a private levee around the subdivision.