River Bend awarded $250,000 to address frequent flooding in one town subdivision

Trevor Dunnell, Sun Journal
·3 min read
Officials, builders and special guests celebrate a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new River Bend Municipal Building in River Bend, NC, July 16, 2020. The ceremony officially opens the building for municipal meeting rooms and town offices that include the River Bend Police Department. The new building was designed by The Walker Group of New Bern.
Officials, builders and special guests celebrate a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new River Bend Municipal Building in River Bend, NC, July 16, 2020. The ceremony officially opens the building for municipal meeting rooms and town offices that include the River Bend Police Department. The new building was designed by The Walker Group of New Bern.

Around half of the homes in River Bend are listed in the town's flood zone. Flood-risk comes with the territory when buying certain properties in the quiet area of Craven County. But now the town has additional funding to help mitigate the situation.

Town Manager Delane Jackson announced River Bend received $250,000 from the Golden Leaf Foundation to implement recommendations from an engineering study and analysis of frequent flooding in River Bend.

The town's mitigation efforts with the grant money are specifically for the Channel Run Subdivision. It will include re-grading and re-sloping of natural drainage infrastructure throughout the community to ensure that water flows efficiently and effectively out of the area, according to a news release from the foundation.

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The foundation is a nonprofit organization that receives a portion of North Carolina’s funding from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers.

For more than 20 years, Golden LEAF has worked to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.

The foundation was appropriated $25 million from the state for a flood mitigation program, which awards funding up to $250,000 per project. Recently, eight projects and a total of more than $1.7 million in funding were awarded for other projects in eastern North Carolina, including River Bend.

Channel Run is the lowest-lying area in the town, explained Jackson. Due to its topography, there is little the town can do to address or control the frequency of flooding.

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"Our objective is to improve the drainage system in that area so that it will perform as best it can during flooding events," Jackson said. "The grant will be used to fund those improvements."

Jackson added the drainage system was damaged during Hurricane Florence. Following the storm, the town received a $122,707 grant from FEMA to repair the area. That grant, along with $33,293 in town funding completed the first phase of the project.

Residents in the Channel Run Subdivision in River Bend will see flood mitigation efforts begin after the town received grant funding.
Residents in the Channel Run Subdivision in River Bend will see flood mitigation efforts begin after the town received grant funding.

The estimated cost to complete the second phase is $278,295. This grant will pay for $250,000 of that cost and the remaining balance will be paid by the town.

"There is no silver bullet to solve the issue," Jackson said. "The best we can do is try to improve the drainage system. Even when operating at its optimal performance level, the drainage system cannot eliminate the possibility of flooding in Channel Run."

River Bend resident Eileen Wroe remembers the high levels of flood water during Hurricane Florence and the drainage issues the area continues to see during heavy rains.

For her, the best hope is that the town knows what needs to be done to alleviate the issue, but Wroe knows there is always a possibility of severe flooding.

"I hope the town is able to use the grant for what is needed in the area," she said. "All of the sewers drains along Plantation Drive are a mess and I'd love to see things repaired. That will certainly help (the flooding).

Reporter Trevor Dunnell can be reached by email at tdunnell@newbernsj.com. Please consider supporting local journalism by signing up for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: River bend given $250K in funding to help with subdivision flooding