The City of Surrey has received a $25,000 Dire States Equipment Grant from Case Construction Equipment. The 2018 grant will provide free equipment rental through Case dealer Titan Machinery for a drainage revitalization and flood control project.

City Administrator Jason Vaagen said without the grant, the city could never afford to do the project.

“The equipment rental grant that we received is more than the streets budget for the year for street maintenance,” Vaagen said. Surrey still will have some out-of-pocket cost for labor and miscellaneous items, but Vaagen said it will not be near the cost of the equipment.

The project is scheduled to be conducted this year. Several drainage-ways have filled with years of sediment, restricting natural run-off of storm water and yearly snowmelt. There also are several roads that require drainage ditches to be installed to prevent flooding.

Submitted Photo Surrey’s Public Works Department standing next to a city truck are, from left, director Keith Hegney, Bob Olson with construction oversight and Chad Kastner, street superintendent.

The poor drainage has wreaked havoc on roadways throughout Surrey, forcing the city to spend large portions of the city’s yearly budget on maintenance. In addition to flooding and infrastructure damage, the drainage issues have caused several areas in town to collect and pool standing water, creating a public health concern.

“This grant will allow us to finally address some of these major drainage concerns in our city,” Keith Hegney, public works director, Surrey, said in a release from Case. “This will vastly improve our community’s drainage issues by stopping flooding and saving our city’s roadways by removing vegetation and soil, grading the land surface and constructing drainage networks to assure natural drainage. Misdirected storm water runoff can and will continue to cause major damage to our city’s infrastructure if we don’t take care of it. Now we can.”

“Dire States is all about making an impact on communities that have struggled under the weight of their crumbling infrastructure,” said Michel Marchand, vice president of North America, Case Construction Equipment, in the release. “Drainage control and flood mitigation are essential when it comes to positioning a city for future growth, and these projects in Surrey, North Dakota, will improve multiple facets of the community and its operations. Making a difference at the local level has been the focus of the Dire States Grant since it launched three years ago.”

Vaagen said Surrey learned about the grant opportunity through the North Dakota League of Cities.

The grant was awarded after soliciting submissions nationwide from local communities to use heavy equipment to improve a critical piece of local infrastructure. A committee of representatives from Case chose the winner.