SHAMOKIN - The city engineer says working "hand in hand" with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be a must to ensure the restoration project of Shamokin Creek and Carbon Run goes smoothly.
The approximate $3.4 million allocated by FEMA to fix 1.23 miles of the creek channels damaged by flooding in September 2011 is a "budget number," Mike Brinkash told city council members during a workshop session Wednesday.
"We can't go off on a tangent. We have to keep them in the loop and we have to make sure they're paying for everything that gets done down there," Brinkash said Friday in a follow-up interview.
All "reasonable and necessary" costs will be reimbursed by FEMA, he said, underlining that it will be of the utmost importance to adhere to guidelines concerning the construction project so as not to complicate any funding requests.
Those guidelines will be very strict along the stretch of Shamokin Creek behind the city's downtown - between Washington and Market streets - in order for the stone channel to be restored as closely to its original state as possible.
That portion lays within proposed boundaries the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission identified as eligible for designation as a historic district.
It is eligible for the National Historic Register, as is the stretch of Carbon Run between Pine Street and the confluence of Shamokin Creek, Tom Grbenick, a project historian, told council members.
Steve Bartos, city clerk, said during Wednesday's meeting that historic restoration standards determined by the U.S. Department of the Interior must be upheld. It's mandatory that contractors qualified to perform historic restoration be utilized for that portion of work.
A request for qualifications to perform the restoration work had already been issued, and three contractors replied. Qualified contractors will be eligible to bid on the work whenever the project specifications are finalized.
Outlying areas in the city's Fifth Ward and downstream towards the Coal Township line are expected to receive different methods for flood control unrelated to historic restoration. Those repairs have yet to be determined.
Brinkash said project officials will meet with representatives of state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ensure early permitting is in place. After that, he said a schedule can be developed including setting a date to seek bids on a construction contract.
Monthly updates of the project will be made to city council, he said.
The city first applied to FEMA in November 2011 and received an initial promise of $1.7 million to repair 50 damaged areas. When water levels dropped, additional surveying and engineering work showed the damage, specifically on the channels bottoms, was much greater. In all, 107 areas were identified for repair. FEMA agreed and doubled the funding request to $3.4 million this past spring.
The project is a result of the combined efforts of City Hall staff with engineers and historians - Brinkash and fellow engineers Ed Balavage and Dave Clouser, of Advantage Engineers, Mechanicsburg, worked with historians Grbenick and Tom Deans along with Bartos and others.
Aside from the compiled engineering and survey information, a comprehensive history of the creek channel was pieced together using photographs, minutes of city council meetings, blueprints, newspaper articles and more, all of it dating to the 1930s.
The stone channels were completed by the Works Progress Administration. Planning is believed to have begun in 1931, with construction performed between 1935 and 1941.
It is believed to be among the largest channels of its kind in length and breadth in the state, Grbenick said.
The creek bed project started with the removal of a buildup of culm in the dirt-bottom stretch of creek throughout the city. It was followed by the installation of the stone channel. The foundation is dry laid sandstone. The walls are mix dry laid and mortared sandstone, according to the Historic Resource Survey Form put together for the project.
The stones churned up and out of place by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee will be assessed. If they can be used, Brinkash said they'll be put back in place. If not, they'll be replaced.
"The best thing is to try to recover the stone in the creek," he said.
No one has been paid for their work to date, Bartos said. Reimbursements will begin once FEMA approves the funding requests.
"We've been working for two years for free," Brinkash said Friday. "We were sort of betting on the project. If FEMA turned around and said we're not funding it, we wouldn't get paid."
There remains no official start date for construction on the channel. A foot bridge spanning Shamokin Creek near Mulberry and Franklin streets was removed this month by Doli Construction, Chalfont, which is working in the creek channel as part of a sewer authority project.
Bartos said he viewed it as the "kick off" of the entire restoration project.
The foot bridge will be replaced, paid for with grant funding obtained by Northumberland County. The county had owned the bridge. In an agreement, it found the funding to replace it and will transfer ownership to the city.