A flood map of Pine Nut Creek was on display at the Flood Workshop at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center last week.
County Manager Jenifer Davidson will be talking to Ruhenstroth residents about work to clear Smelter Creek 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.
The meeting will review the outcome of county commissioners' Nov. 6 meeting on the issue, provide updates, outline steps involved in cleanup and restoration and answer questions.
Even as the county starts an estimated $350,000 job to muck out Smelter Creek through Ruhenstroth, an East Valley resident, flooded in 2023, is asking whether the county will help fix her drainage.
Sheepcamp Road resident Kim Magary said that flooding did significant damage just to her property two years ago and she wants to know what the county is going to do about that.
"(The county doesn't) need to pick and choose who is important and who is not important," she said the day after county commissioners approved the expenditure. "(We've had) $40,000 worth of damage paid out of pocket and all we want is the channel fixed properly."
Magary said a neighbor moved the ditch to along the power line easement where it doesn't line up with the culvert.
"It doesn't hit the box culvert, and overtops Jo Lane and creates flooding issues," she said. "I don't want to sue anyone. I just want the county to give the $10,000 to fix the channel properly, and they wouldn't put their hands on it."
Stormwater Manager Courtney Walker said the county is studying the Sawmill Road and Pine Nut Road washes, which come together at the upper Allerman Canal just west of Sawmill Road.
"Once the feasibility study is completed, we will know what the 'fix' is and how much it will cost," Walker told The Record-Courier on Wednesday.
Walker said that once the study is done, work to correct the issue could require an upstream basin, which could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One of the differences between the washes along Pine Nut Road and Ruhenstroth is that Smelter Creek has been thoroughly studied including new FEMA maps issued in January 2024 and an area drainage plan.
The Magary's property was damaged after the East Valley received up to 2.5 feet of snow in places during the New Year's Tonopah Low that melted in March storms that flooded several parts of the Valley stretching to Buckeye and prompting concerns about the levee holding back the Dangberg Pond breaking.
On Thursday, Douglas County held its annual flood workshop where a map of the East Valley showed that the washes are part of the Pine Nut Creek drainage.
Like the rain that was falling outside, participation was light, with a few dozen residents visiting the Douglas County Community & Senior Center. The county is working on a stormwater utility that could raise funds to help provide flood control.
A $72,950 contract with Lumos & Associates is on county commissioners' consent agenda for design and assistance with building a detention basin on Pamela Place. The county agreed to pay $300,000 for the one-acre lot at 2731 Pamela Place back in June.
Douglas County has completed four basins on public land listed in the Johnson Lane Drainage Master Plan that was part of the 2019 settlement between residents and the county.
Douglas County has a list of active $12.77 million in active grant applications that will require $1.9 million in matching funds. Only two of those grants have actual funding, including the Pamela Place detention basin. The $8 million Hot Springs Buckbrush Control System's grant match is partially funded.
The county is stumping for a stormwater utility to help fund a $69.95 million list of projects, including the $24.3 million Fish Springs Pinenut Creek Dam.
Douglas County has obtained land for basins at Redhawk and DenMar along the drainage of Pinenut Creek to help slow down flooding along there.