ROGERS (KFSM) – Damage from flooding this past spring can still be seen at Lake Atalanta.
Most of the damage to Lake Atalanta was cleaned up quickly, allowing the park to reopen at the end of May 2017.
There is still a section that’s closed because one road and one pedestrian bridge need to be rebuilt.
Rogers City Council voted Tuesday (Sept. 12) to enter into a contract to repair those bridges.
This contract is also part of the FEMA process. FEMA allows for the redesign of structures like the bridges when a disaster reveals that improvements can be made.
“Their basic position is that they rebuild what was already there but in this case, we’ve had FEMA onsite and we’ve inspected the bridges and they’ve agreed to help fund a redesign to make the bridges stronger and withstand bigger events in the future,” John McCurdy said.
John McCurdy is the community development director for the city of Rogers. He said if there would have been lesser events before the big one, they would have learned more about the scour and erosion around the bridges.
“And been able to make the improvements on the fly, which is normally what happens with a structure like this, but the fact that it got hit so hard right after the park was opened, caused a lot more damage then I think it would’ve caused if this had happened a few years from now,” he said.
The contract is around $145,000. They anticipate FEMA will reimburse the city for up to 80 percent of that cost.