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Marseilles fared well during flooding

By Billy Thompson May 21, 2020 | 5:42 PM

Marseilles Mayor Jim Hollenbeck says the city fared well during flooding earlier this week. There was a voluntary evacuation of the neighborhood east of downtown that has flooded in the past. The river got high enough, according to city guidelines, to call a mandatory evacuation but Hollenbeck says it wasn’t necessary. He says the city will reevaluate those guidelines since many improvements have been made to levees around the city.

Hollenbeck says the $1.7-million levee improvement project at the wastewater treatment plant paid off. The water reached up to the new steel walls but didn’t get in.

A big flooding concern is water in the raceway by the hydroelectric plant which is under construction. Hollenbeck says once that’s completed it won’t be an issue anymore.

(PHOTO courtesy of Marseilles City Hall)