BCISD grants drainage easement to Burnet near RJ Richey Elementary
A map of the granted easement and an additional waterway that could potentially receive drainage relief due to it. Google Maps
The city of Burnet took on a drainage easement from the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District on Monday, March 23, assuming responsibility for clearing out and maintaining a creek that was causing the district persistent flooding issues.
The 100-foot wide easement, encompassing approximately 2.44 acres of land by N. Wood and E. Graves streets, will give the city full responsibility for maintaining the waterway and its surrounding area, including clearing the creek of debris and ensuring regular water flow.
Several instances of partial flooding around the encompassing streets and areas of the creek, including behind the district’s transportation and maintenance building, were noted by BCISD Chief Financial Officer Clay Goehring as regularly occurring problems leading to the call for an easement.
“When you drive by transportation and maintenance and that’s flooded, it floods on that street, that all comes from the water from this little creek,” Goehring said at the meeting.
Goehring added that BCISD was hopeful that the easement would assist in correcting some of the draining problems of an additional waterway running east between Burnet Middle School and RJ Richey Elementary School.
“(The easement) will help. It’s not going to solve, but it’ll help water flow for basically our entire property up to the north of (RJ Richey),” Goehring said.
At a previous meeting, several community members spoke during the public comments section to ask BCISD to address the flow of that same waterway, which had overflowed during the July floods and partly affected the properties south of it.
While the easement is not meant to directly correct that waterway’s flow, Goehring said that BCISD still plans on establishing a more permanent solution for that project.