Findlay marks start of Eagle Creek Basin construction

FINDLAY — Regional leaders gathered Friday for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the eventual Eagle Creek Storage Basin, the centerpiece of construction projects that have been almost 20 years in the making and are meant to address Findlay's troubled past with flooding. Through various improvements and a four-part plan that altogether could cost up to $138.5 million, flooding on Main Street will be reduced by three feet in the event of a 1-in-100-year storm, a release from Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development states. Approximately 1,830 parcels and 1,400 acres are estimated for removal from the regulatory floodplain after all improvements have been completed. The groundbreaking — hosted by Blanchard River Watershed Solutions, Hancock County commissioners, city of Findlay, Maumee Watershed Conservancy District and Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development — marked the construction of the basin, Phase II Benching in downtown Findlay and the widening of the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge in downtown Findlay. Phase I benching in downtown Findlay is already completed. The Friday ceremony was not open to the public. Speakers at the event discussed the damaging flood of 2007, the second worst in the city's history, and the ways in which it brought the community together to rebuild and work toward a solution. While the 2007 flood was one of the worst, flooding has consistently been a problem in Findlay since at least 1913. Speakers included Tim Mayle, Blanchard River Watershed Solutions; Judge Jonathan Starn, Hancock County Common Pleas Court and Maumee Watershed Conservancy Court member; Mike Mallet, downtown Findlay investor; Christina Muryn, mayor of Findlay; Bill Bateson, Hancock County commissioner; John Menninger, vice president of Stantec, a Toledo-based engineering and environmental consultant company; Dave Heppner, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of Marathon Petroleum Corporation; Myron Lewis, CEO of Blanchard Valley Health System; David Blatnik, manager of state government affairs at Marathon Petroleum Corporation; Tony Burger, environmental group manager at Miller Brothers Construction; Shane Helms, CEO of Helms & Sons Excavation; and George Ropp, past board member of the Maumee Watershed Conservancy District. "Looking across this patch of Hancock County landscape, it is not only over 700 acres of earth and engineering prep work; it is the capstone of a profound promise kept to the families, business owners and community members who live in the watershed, the people of Findlay and Hancock County have all too often looked at a heavy rain forecast and known the feeling of dread that then falls over them," said Judge Jonathan Starn at the ceremony. "We have lived through the history of the Blanchard River and Eagle Creek breaking their banks, damaging homes and disrupting lives. Today, we are finally rewriting that history."