Upper Dublin receives $11.83 million state grant for flood control
Ambler Gazette
Montgomery Media
By Thomas Celona
January 25, 2012
The grant will be used to pay for the engineering, design and construction of two large dams to address the long-standing flooding problems in the Fort Washington Office Park.
"I can't overemphasize what a win this is for the township," board of commissioners President Ira Tackel said.
"The H2O grant is just phenomenal," he said. "The township staff, our consultants, URS and especially the politicians, Sen. Greenleaf, Reps. Murt, Stephens, Shapiro and Gerber really did a bipartisan job in helping Upper Dublin to secure this grant."
The township applied for an H2O grant, which range from $500,000 to $20 million, back in the summer of 2010. While initially the township had expected to hear whether or not it had received the grant by November 2010, the state kept pushing back the awarding of the grants.
Despite the wait, the $11.83 million grant will make a huge impact on the township's efforts to prevent continued flooding in the office part, which is a major source of the township's tax base.
The office park, which is home to approximately 105 buildings with 14,500 employees, has been flood prone since it was first developed in the early 1950s, according to a press release from the township.
From 1978 to 2007, FEMA paid $11.2 million in insurance claims due to flooding in the office park, while real estate tax assessments on office park properties have led to a $250,000 annual decrease in revenue for the township and school district, according to a press release from state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-12.
"[The office park] represents a significant component of the tax base for both Upper Dublin Township and the Upper Dublin School District," the township wrote in a press release. "The Board of Commissioners sought state funding in order to address problems that have in recent times reduced the property values and income from this area."
"It certainly begins the healing process and a turn around in terms of businesses potentially leaving the office park because of flooding issues and businesses sustaining significant costs because of damage," Tackel said. "If we can reduce and turn around the process of flooding, it just opens up a whole new avenue of things we can do."
Tackel praised the bipartisan support from the township's representatives in Harrisburg that helped the township secure the grant. Greenleaf and state Reps. Mike Gerber, Tom Murt, Josh Shapiro and Todd Stephens all wrote letters supporting the township's grant efforts.
"This is not about politics; it's about what's in the best interest of the residents of Upper Dublin and the surrounding areas," he said. "... This is a great example of how the system is supposed to work, and I'm just really proud of that."
"We worked long and hard with the Commonwealth Finance Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to move this project forward," Greenleaf said in a press release. "We are all confident in the effectiveness of this project and look forward to its completion."
In preparing the grant application, the township approved $1.2 million for URS to prepare designs for the two dams, with the board approving an additional $385,000 since then to continue updating the plans.
The state will also be reimbursing the township for the $1.2 million in engineering fees, bringing to total award to approximately $13 million, according to Greenleaf’s office.
The H2O grant will be used to build two dams structures to control flooding in the office park.
One will be located off the Pine Run behind the Mercedes-Benz dealership on Dreshertown Road in the Dresher section of the township. The dam will be a 16-foot-high concrete labyrinth structure and will impact an approximately 2.1-square-mile drainage area, according to the township.
The second dam will be built off the Rapp Run by the Mondaug Bark Park on Camp Hill Road in the Fort Washington section of the township. The dam will be a 19-foot-high concrete labyrinth structure that will impact an approximately 1.9-square-mile drainage area, according to the township.
Prior to receiving the grant, the township decided in December to go ahead with building the dam structures, saying constructing the dams was critical to preserving the life of the office park.
"I think the township commissioners stuck their necks out a little bit, committed to the project not knowing if we'd get the state funding," Tackel said. "It was something we knew we need to do one way or another."
The township's 2012 budget allocated borrowing $3.5 million for the creation of the dams. The township will now do a thorough cost study to discover the total cost of building the two structures, which may come to more than the $11.82 million grant amount, according to Tackel.
The township had originally anticipated putting one of the dams out to bid this spring, but Tackel said he anticipates with the grant in hand, the township could put both out to bid this year.
Upper Dublin Township was one of five statewide municipalities to receive an H2O Flood Mitigation grant Wednesday, according to Greenleaf’s office. The others were Athens Borough in Bradford County, Grove Township in Cameron County, Irvona Township in Clearfield County and Danville Borough in Montour County. Upper Dublin received the second-highest grant amount behind Grove Township, which received $18 million.