Palo man runs for City Council after failed culvert floods home

Scott Packingham's campaign for Palo city council has turned into a referendum on Tom Watson.

Watson, Palo's head of infrastructure, has been the target of Packingham's wrath ever since the council candidate's basement was swamped in August flash flooding. Packingham wants the city to help him pay for the damage and is threatening a lawsuit.

“I'm not perfect, but when I make a mistake, I'm going to go apologize and try to help out,” said Packingham, a union pipe fitter who built his home on Palo's west edge in 2000.

When a deluge fell on Palo and the rest of Eastern Iowa in August, Watson's plan to hold back floodwater west of town by blocking a culvert backfired and inflicted $40,000 in damage on Packingham's basement, Packingham said. Watson disagrees, and said Packingham's house was flooded because there was so much rain and the house is in a low spot.

“Everybody just listens to what he says, and I don't think he knows,” Packingham said. “Most of the people on the council, they just do what he says.”

Palo is low-lying and susceptible both to major flooding - 2008 - and flash flooding - 2009. Watson partially blocked a giant culvert under railroad tracks about 1,000 feet from Packingham's backyard hoping to protect several dozen homes south of Vinton Street. Any backup would pool in the field west of the railroad tracks, he hoped, which would act as a levee. Unknown to Watson or anyone else, a second culvert sits under the train tracks about 1,500 feet to the north.

Packingham and his neighbors say when water behind the restricted culvert rose high enough, it spilled over the tracks, backed up to the north and funneled through the secret culvert. He and his neighbors pumped water over Vinton Street to the south and Blairs Ferry Road to the north to drain his yard and the yard of his neighbor, Darren Ruzicka. They used city pumps and a backhoe and hoses on loan from Watson.

The Ruzickas, whose basement escaped unscathed despite being surrounded by water, have been more cautious in their criticism of Watson and the city. Lisa Ruzicka, an occupational therapist who works in Marengo, said she thinks the blocked culvert contributed to the flooding and she is frustrated, but she is also waiting to see what the city does.

“I'm not sure what happened,” she said. “There's so much conflicting information there, that I'm not comfortable accusing anybody yet.”

KGAN-TV broadcast a story placing the blame squarely on Watson, which is how Packingham sees it.

Watson argues, though, that while backup from the culvert may have played a part, the bigger factor was water flowing under Blairs Ferry Road from the north.

“With a nine inch (rain) event, there's no control,” Watson said.

Packingham said the culvert under Blairs Ferry is too small to have caused the flooding, but the city has no plans to help him pay for the damage.

Packingham, whose property has not flooded so badly - except in 2008 - in his or his neighbors' memory, is now using 59 dump truck loads of dirt to build up the slope to his house, and he built a new, higher wall around the back of the home.

Watson is working on two drainage projects he hopes to complete before winter - a new culvert under First Street next to the Palo Mini Mart, and a diversion ditch on the north side of the development along Blairs Ferry Road.

His days as the all-purpose point man for the city of Palo may be numbered, regardless of whether Packingham wins in November. The council is looking to shift more projects out of Watson's hands, Council Member Paula Gunter said, and get him to focus exclusively on flood recovery, the original intent of his hiring.

“I think he has gotten involved in things other than flood recovery,” Gunter said. “We are looking at the projects and seeing how they can be dispersed to city staff or city council.”

Meanwhile, Packingham works on his home, campaigns for City Council and toys with the idea of a lawsuit.

“If I just get ignored or brushed off,” he said, “I don't think I have any choice but to (sue).”