North Shoppes detention pond project moving forward

County efforts to build a detention pond at the Shoppes at North Village are back on track after hitting a snag last month.

A revision of the City of St. Joseph’s stormwater code caused the local civil engineering firm, Snyder & Associates, to adjust its plans for the detention pond, which will be built in the northeast corner of the North Shoppes.

“Those have been revised because certain elements of the detention pond needed to have a trash rack to catch any loose trash from the interstate,” Buchanan County Western District Commissioner Ron Hook said.

A detention pond is a basin that holds storm water and gradually releases it to prevent flooding and erosion, according to the St. Louis, Missouri, Metropolitan Sewer District.

“It's just something federal, state and local regulations require us to do,” Hook said. “Anytime there's a large area of land that water concentrates to one area, it has to be a slow release.”

The Buchanan County Commissioners hired a contractor, Legacy Underground, for the construction of the detention pond earlier this month.

The $300,000 project will start with the removal of trees and brush in the area.

“That ought to be about a two or three day process, so we have until mid-March to do it,” Hook said.

Trees must be removed before the middle of March to follow environmental guidelines. The Indiana bat, an endangered species, roosts in trees in parts of Missouri when it is not hibernating in the winter.

Construction on the detention pond is expected to begin early in the spring when the ground is no longer firm from winter temperatures.

“It’s going to catch all that water coming down to that low point in the northeast corner, and then it will go into the water stream,” Hook said.