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Sunday, May. 17, 2009

Plan to move Martin bogs down

REPEATED FLOODING STRAINS COAL TOWN

MARTIN — Five years ago, the federal government pledged $97 million to help this declining coal town move to higher ground to avoid its repeated flooding after heavy rains washed over the nearby banks of Beaver Creek.

But the project is two or three years behind schedule, Army Corps of Engineers officials say. Although one-third of the planned cost has been spent on earth-moving, design and planning, no buildings have been moved yet, and many were filled with five feet of muddy water from last weekend's flash floods.

In fact, the only thing that has been moved in Martin is a wedge of hillside that was carved out near the center of town. A retaining wall was built around it.

Martin Mayor Thomasine Robinson, whose town hall is a square building with aluminum siding on rusty stilts, on Tuesday urged Gov. Steve Beshear and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers to prod the Army Corps of Engineers to speed up the process to allow residents and businesses to move quickly.

"I had one elderly lady who's lost her home seven times," Robinson told Beshear. "She's sleeping in her vehicle right now. That is all she's got. I have begged the Corps to buy her out now."

Robinson said she doubts that what's left of the downtown can handle another massive flood.

"Our homes aren't going to hold up," she said. "At some point, we're all going to end up in Beaver Creek."

Money has been steadily allocated for the project, including $1.6 million earmarked in the 2009 budget for the completion of designing and preparing to build a new Floyd County alternative high school, said Joe McCallister, lead project engineer with the Corps.

After flooding in 1998, local officials began looking at efforts to preserve Martin, a historic coal town whose population has shrunk over the past few decades to 633. Two years later, the Corps joined in the redevelopment plan.

The $97 million expected to be spent by the Corps is more than 10 times the assessed value of all the property in the town — a fact that has led to criticism in some quarters about whether preserving the small town is worth it.

Last weekend's floods, though unusual, are not unprecedented in Martin. The speed and height of the flash floodwaters from Beaver Creek caught some residents by surprise. But some buildings are already on stilts or high foundations in expectation of floods.

Disrupted businesses

Most recent development in the town — such as a McDonald's, some houses and a school — are situated on higher ground near the four-lane Ky. 80. Some businesses near the town center have either closed or moved up the road.

One business owner said he closed up shop because of disruption surrounding the flood-mitigation project.

Jerry Case, who owns Case's Furniture stores in Hi Hat and Garrett, said he closed his store on Main Street in Martin because dust and truck traffic from the redevelopment project cut into business. People didn't want to come downtown because of it, he said.

"It forced me out of business," Case said. "It went from a pretty good business to just about nothing."

The spot where the hillside was leveled won't have room for many businesses, and Case said he doubts Martin will ever come back after the project.

"I think Hal Rogers had good intentions, but I don't think it's worked out very good," he said. "It's the biggest waste of $100 million I've ever seen."

Rogers, a Republican who represents the 5th District in Eastern and Southern Kentucky, got the money put in the federal budget for the project, saying it would improve the county's economic future.

Weeds and a flagpole

The platform created by carving out the piece of Martin's hillside was a makeshift observation deck on May 9. Residents hung over the rails of its retaining wall at the top, watching Floyd County crews take boats out to houses and haul homeowners to shore.

Though it's covered with nothing more than a couple of acres of weeds and a flagpole now, the platform should be the construction site for a new school, city hall and police station starting by October, McCallister said.

"We're really not very far along in the whole project," he said.

He said the government bureaucracy that controls the project's money has slowed progress.

In the end, some of the land on the platform will be developed by the county for commercial use. But most residences and businesses will stay down below, with their elevations raised by the dirt that was piled up from the mountain excavation.

There have been discussions about putting the post office on the site, or maybe a professional office building or pharmacy, said Eric Ratliff, a planner with the Big Sandy Area Development District, who will help market the private part of the redevelopment site. The goal, he said, is to revive a tax base for Martin.

"In the long run," Ratliff said, "it'll be good for everybody."

Staff writer Ryan Alessi contributed to this report.