All of the roads closed due to flooding in the City of Knox are now open. Knox Street Superintendent Jeff Borg told the Board of Works members Wednesday morning that rerouting the truck traffic helped keep trucks out of danger and be on more solid roads.
The city had 60 tons of sand available for sand bags and the county brought in another 50 tons of sand to fill sand bags. Borg said about 10 tons of sand remain for city use. Any sand bags that are no longer needed may soon be collected and the sand re-deposited at the city street department.
The wastewater treatment facility is back to normal capacity after all pumps were running at capacity during the weekend. The facility was manned 24 hours a day during the flood event to monitor flows and equipment. Work will be done soon to disconnect residential sump pumps from the sewer system. There are several homes that pump water from basements and it flows into the sewer system when it needs to be pumped outside. That caused some issues during the flood event over the weekend.
There could be an issue with solid waste violations, but that will be addressed with IDEM soon. Crews from the water department assisted with wastewater operations during the flooding.
The Knox-Center Township Fire Department assisted with five rescues during the weekend. Fire Chief Kenny Pfost said their rescue boat helped transport displaced residents in the Parkview area in Knox and even one in the LaCrosse area.
