An update of two previous drainage studies indicates completing projects included in those studies would cost the city approximately $20 million.

That update is scheduled to be discussed during the City Council’s meeting today, according to the tentative agenda for that meeting.

The two previous studies — September 2007 and February 2009 — were reviewed by Rivers & Associates, hired by the city to determine what it likely would cost to complete unfinished project identified in the two studies.

“Although this is a very rough model for escalation of the construction cost estimates, it is based upon the best information available without completely re-preparing the cost estimates from the original study,” reads a memorandum from Rivers & Associates to Frankie Buck, the city’s public-works director.

The 2009 study estimates the cost for drainage improvements in a section of the Jack’s Creek Basin at $4.9 million, according to a memorandum from Buck to the mayor and City Council.

An area of major concern includes the Brown Street-East 12^th Street area near Tayloe’s Hospital Pharmacy. The study, performed by Rivers & Associates, calls for a series of box culverts along Willow and Simmons streets. That culvert system would enter Jack’s Creek upstream of Park Drive, according to the memorandum. The benefit of the culvert system would be avoiding disturbance of neighboring backyards west of Simmons Street.

According to the update, one option for the Brown Street-East 12^th Street area would cost about $7.9 million, and a second option would cost an estimated $7.1 million.

Another area of concern is upstream from Eighth Street. Improvements from Eighth Street to Oak Drive, including installment of a box culvert at John Small Avenue (U.S. Highway 264), would cost an estimated $5.2 million, according to the study performed in 2007. Because U.S. 64 is a federal highway, the North Carolina Department of Transportation is responsible for installing the box culvert, according to city officials.

The Jack’s Creek study area project would cost an estimated $8.1 million to complete, according to the update. The work identified in the Airport Canal study area carries a projected cost of $4.3 million to complete.

Although the city began making drainage improvements in the Jack’s Creek basin about 12 years ago, city officials acknowledged those improvements, made in phases as money become available, need to be expanded and expedited. During a council meeting in September 2016, Councilman Doug Mercer said doing drainage projects in phases does not do much to solve the problem. “I think it’s time for us to bite the bullet. If we need a $10 million or $15 million project, let’s put together a bond issue, ask the people to vote on it. If the people say they want to correct the problem, we borrow the money and fix it. It’s time to quit kicking the can down the road,” Mercer said then.

The city’s proposed budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, which begins July1, includes $200,000 to address drainage issues.

At the council’s retreat in February, Mercer said, “It’s a matter of how much farther back upstream can we afford this year. We started here. We moved to here. How much can we finance this year? Regrettably, we’re putting $150,000 to $200,000 a year into a $10-million project. I made the statement one time that 50 years from now we’ll complete what we said we needed to do this year, and we’ll have a completely new set of problems. We need to go ahead and bite the bullet and decided how we’re going to finance it and do what we need to do.”

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s web­site at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “City Agendas.” Locate the appropriate agenda (by date) under the “Washington City Council” heading, then click on that specific agenda listing.