DAPHNE, Ala.—City leaders at a work session Monday discussed funding and engineering plans to fix one private and one service area that were damaged during a March 28 storm, when flood waters flowed from U.S. Interstate 10 over U.S. Highway 90 and into Lake Forest.

Ashley Campbell, site containment inspector, said both areas experienced landslides due to an overflowing watershed; she suggested the city apply for National Resources Conservation Service funding since that source aided previous work at the private site on Worchester Drive.

The organization would pay 75 percent of construction costs with the city paying 25 percent plus the cost of engineering work. Each project would cost the city approximately $55,000 with the grant, Campbell said. The organization would require that Daphne pay for five years of monitoring and maintenance on the property, she said.

Council members seemed wary since previous damage has occurred and future damage is possible.

“This area has washed out several times already,” Councilman Bailey Yelding said.

“We might need to pay real close attention to what’s going on here.”

Councilman Greg Burnam agreed.

“It sounds like it’s just in a bad spot,” he said.

City leaders also worried about liabilities, but since the city has repaired the property before, there is an “implied obligation” for the city to fix it again, according to Jay Ross, city attorney.

“The city might be obligated to repair it continually,” he said.

Council President John Lake and Councilman August Palumbo asked what would be different from the previous repair to make this one last.

“If we just make the repair, it’s sort of a Band-Aid approach; I was there that morning—the hill’s slope and top soil collapsed,” Palumbo said.

Andy James, an engineer with Volkert & Associates, said that previously only the slope was stabilized.

“Now we’re doing a top-of-bank to top-of-bank repair; it’s a holistic approach,” he said. The repair would include strengthening the creek bed and building a retention wall on the side of the property, he said. James pointed out that this plan was less likely to fail, but that there is no guarantee.

Ashley Campbell explained the source of the problem.

“Until we implement watershed management, it may fail again,” she said.

She added that the city is conducting a study to slow the erosion process. It will be completed in one year. She said the city has also applied for stream restoration funding that would provide $11 million to correct watershed problems if the grant is awarded.

For now, Campbell recommended they apply for the federal funds.

“If we don’t take this funding opportunity, we may not have another,” she said of the service’s plan to change regulations, so that the property in question may be ineligible in the future.

James said that Baldwin County Road 13 could have been destroyed during the incident.

“Bill Eady (planning director) cleaned out the culvert before the storm; if they hadn’t done that, (Baldwin) County Road 13 might be lost,” he said.

In other business, Joe Bullock and Darrelyn Bender of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce proposed a technology center to network universities, private businesses and inventors so that inventions and patents can be materialized more successfully into consumer goods.

“It would take new ideas from the public sector, national labs and universities and turn technologies into commercial products,” Bullock said.

Bender said the center would create more jobs and bring large businesses to the area.

A similar company has “created 150 businesses in New Mexico, 33 of which are venture capital companies,” she said.

Bullock said the center would focus on creating environmentally green technologies and on local benefits; profits would eventually fund the center, he said.

“We hope for it to be self-sustaining in five years,” he said.

In order to begin the project, Bender said they would need an experienced executive director and support staff. They hope to initially secure three years’ worth of salaries for those positions, she said.

Then the staff can network with businesses and bring them to the Eastern Shore, she said.

“We have the quality of life to keep them (businesses) here,” she said.

Palumbo and Councilman Derek Boulware seemed in favor of the idea though no formal action can be taken at work sessions.

“This is tangible,” Palumbo said.

Boulware agreed.

“I expect great things from this project and this plan,” he said.

To learn more about the technology center see Thursday’s report on baldwincountynow.com.

Also Monday, council members discussed pros and cons of switching to weekly garbage service. The city currently picks up garbage twice weekly: recycling once and trash once a week per house, Councilman Ron Scott said.

Mayor Fred Small said that trash service is excluded in cost estimates since it is a luxury of living in Daphne and paying taxes in the city.

“The garbage service needs to be self-sufficient,” he said, adding that garbage-service payments should cover purchasing, operating and maintenance of vehicles. “Right now, it costs $23.77 per household and they pay $13(.90).”

Palumbo, however, questioned the service’s fiscal responsibility.

“Does garbage need to be self-sufficient since people pay their sales tax?” he said.

Eady suggested the city change to weekly garbage collection and once weekly recycling collection; this way, the same drivers could be used for both tasks.

Small added that proper recycling could help ease certain expenses but raise others.

“If everyone used the program like we should, it would reduce our landfill costs too,” he said.

He said that recycling is an expensive labor when compared to its small returns, especially since the price for recycled glass has dropped tremendously.

Council members agreed that price increases were inappropriate during an economic recession, and city leaders seemed to lean toward weekly service, though Boulware said he was undecided on the issue.

A possible amendment to the garbage ordinance will come to a vote at the next council meeting, 6:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.