Ask The Answer Person: "Is the City of Decorah going to do anything about the erosion on Dry Run Creek along the library parking lot?"

Thanks, Becca, for your e-mail--there definitely has been erosion to the retaining wall at the edge of the library parking lot.

We checked with Decorah City Administrator Chad Bird.  He said the project is on the city's stormwater infrastructure project list--and has been

for quite some time.

Why hasn't the project gotten done yet?  City staffers aren't sure what the best solution to the problem would be.  Quoting Chad Bird, "Can we box in the entire channel, like under Fareway, and add parking or do we leave part of the area open and create a 'water feature?'  Does the city just add a wall to the west side and leave the rest as is?"

Whatever the answer to that question will be, city officials know the work will be very expensive.  The city's storm water utility fund is the best source of funding for the project, but it doesn't have enough annual revenue to complete a project of this size.  That means the city would have to tap into its general fund.