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Parma Heights tearing down piece of park to make room for water basin to stop flooding

Posted at 7:50 AM, May 02, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-02 09:49:29-04

PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — The city of Parma Heights has some serious issues with flooding, so dire the city is willing to take away some green space to fix it.

"We’re built out, residentially we’re built out in the city, so that became a real challenge to find an area that we can put in a basin of this size,” said Parma Heights Mayor Mike Byrne.

Mayor Bryne says the residents will lose a baseball diamond, a few soccer fields and the concession stands at Nathan Hale Park in order to make room for a huge water basin. It’s a $1 million project that’s fully funded by grants.

"There’s always the good with some of the bad, we will loose some greens space, but we’re also going to take care of the flooding problems,” said Bryne.

The mayor and several engineers say the basin will catch a lot of the water and slow it down, hopefully putting an end to their massive flooding issues. That’s something resident Marge Grizzanti says is music to her ears.

"Every time it rains the back yard the backyard floods to the point that it looks like we have a pond in the backyard,” said Marge.

Other residents don’t want to see the park go.

"Now I’m going to have a giant pond behind me with a fence, a 30-foot wall and a six foot fence. How am I going to sell my house?” said Bob Saleem. "Fix your sewers, and don’t dig a hole and store water in my backyard.”

The city will start work on the park at the end of May, closing the entire park down temporarily for six months.