Feb 27, 2018 2 min read

After area residents took to social media to voice concerns about more rain and flooding last weekend, Washington officials want them to know they’ve been heard.

City Councilman Joe Manning, who helped to organize a flood summit for municipal leaders around the area next week, said he’d also like to schedule a public hearing in the future to hear public concerns.

Manning sent out a news release last week about the 2 p.m. March 6 summit at City Hall. He said he expects Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober to be there as well as representatives from both state Sen. Camera Bartolotta’s and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s offices. He’s also hopeful a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be in attendance.

The summit meeting will not be a public forum, Manning said Monday, but will focus on municipal leaders brainstorming for solutions to flooding, like infrastructure improvements and the dredging of streams.

“This meeting is primarily for municipal officials,” he said. “If it was just for people to come and voice their concerns, it wouldn’t be productive and we’d never get anything done. We know their concerns – that’s why we’re working on this in the first place.”

Manning said the public is welcome to attend and hear the ideas that are raised. He said if there is a need, city council will hold a public hearing on flooding issues for its residents in the future.

“This is no longer a rare event where you see flooding after extremely heavy rain. My neighbors’ basements all flood every time it rains and our constituents and businesses are seeing major damage over and over again,” Manning said in last week’s news release. “Chartiers Township has really been impacted, but we’re inviting officials from all surrounding municipalities. Hopefully, working together, we can find a way to deal with this.”