New Richland flooding cleanup continues

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - Two weeks ago, heavy rain in New Richland overwhelmed the county ditches and storm drains causing the city sewer system to back up in some homes.

A local butcher shop had to surround their property with sandbags to avoid flooding.

Dan Lewer: “If we wouldn’t have sandbagged we would’ve had to shut coolers off possibly freezers off and evacuate the product and that would have been all on our cost and if any water got into the building then the state and food inspectors would’ve been here to swab and make sure everything was clean enough to continue operating again which would have shut us down for probably three to four weeks which is catastrophic for a small business. Even when we sandbagged it was five feet from the back door. The high school was gracious enough to let some of the seniors come help us bag it up and a handful couple dozen or so of other community members that stopped and helped.”

Bud Olsen: “People just want answers. People in this town don’t want to be part of the problem they want to be part of the solution. So we just want to know what steps we need to take to move forward to have some progress happen.”

Kerrie Dzuibak: “I’ve lived in town thirteen years this is the third time our basement has been hit. I experience sewer every time we get heavy rains comes up through the floor drains, the toilet, the shower and it’s sewage. My goal is they better figure out how they’re going to fix it. Not we’re going to look into it we’re going to fix it.”

Dan Lewer: “And there’s no use in pointing the blame at any one person team or council it’s just what are we going to do moving forward.”

Bud Olsen: " And if there is nothing that can be done then we need to know that. We’ve been in limbo for far too long and we’d like to see some change if it is possible.”

After receiving a grant in 2018 Houston Engineering completed a study to determine how much water enters the city from surrounding farm fields. County Administrator Doug Kristofferson says Houston Engineer will continue to study water flow into the city but right now that study isn’t paid for. According to estimates that study will cost the city and county around 45,000 dollars.

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