City readies for McHardy flood repairs

McHardy Park took an unprecedented beating in back-to-back floods that soaked the city and surrounding area in March, saturating the public rec site with debris and unsettling thousands of dollars’ worth of fixtures. Now, seven weeks since the park closed, Brandon is requesting for residents to pitch in as restoration efforts begin.

The city is asking for volunteers at McHardy Park this Saturday, May 4, for a community-wide clean-up that starts at 1 p.m.

Heavy rains on March 9 and 13 drove the level of Split Rock Creek, which winds through McHardy Park, alarmingly high – so high that lingering, late-winter bergs of ice couldn’t pass under the pedestrian bridge that runs parallel to the playground. 

As more of the mini glaciers collected, they began knocking into one another like dominos.

“Once that happened, it just back-flowed into the entire park,” explained parks superintendent Devin Coughlin.

Spring flooding is par for the course at McHardy Park, but as history has shown, not to this level.

“We’ve dealt with water every flippin’ year for a while. We’ve gotten pretty good at cleaning up after the floods, but the ice threw a whole new wrench into the plan,” Coughlin said.

The Split Rock current wasn’t unusually strong, but the backflow and bergs were solid enough to snap five light poles, smash the ball field’s fence and bleachers, warp the swing set, crack the spiral slide at the playground, split the doors of the public restrooms, and upend trees, a porta potty and picnic shelter pieces that broke off or floated away. 

Four or five pieces of playground equipment will need to be replaced – “kind of the protruding parts of the playground that took the brunt of the ice,” Coughlin said. 

He’s estimating repairs to be as much as $20,000, none of which the city or parks department budgeted for.

“Playgrounds are expensive. Pieces are expensive. The fencing isn’t too bad, but we’ve got to hire a fence company to come in and replace the fence, reattach and realign everything, then electricians for the wiring,” he said.

Coughlin has costs estimates on replacements and repairs, and companies are on standby until the park can be cleaned up enough for that work to begin.

Here’s where the community comes in.

This Saturday, clean-up volunteers will pick up debris the backflow left behind in the park – sticks, branches and logs, rocks and gravel, trash – and rake the mud at the playground and ball diamond.   

Volunteers are encouraged to bring shovels, rakes and small hauling equipment, like ATVs, UTVs and garden tractors. 

Then the repair work begins on the playground, fencing and lights. 

“None of it’s in the budget, but it has to be done, budget or no budget,” Coughlin said. “Whether that leaves we, as the parks department, short toward the end of the year, which we’ve done before – it’s not fun – or if we get insurance money, or if we get FEMA money…”

The city of Brandon has filed an insurance claim, said city administrator Bryan Read, and Gov. Kristi Noem put in a request to have the flooding declared a federal disaster, which could snag FEMA funds.

“But we’re not going to wait around for FEMA designation to make those repairs,” Read said. 

Coughlin hopes to reopen McHardy Park to the public June 1.

“That’s my cross your fingers and hope we’re done, or at least done enough,” he said. 

At Pioneer Park’s disc golf course, the flooding wiped away tee number two – the parks crew still hasn’t found it – and buried the first hole under mud.

“The disc golf course will be short a hole or two for a while now,” Coughlin said. 

Brandon Golf Course has re-opened, though hole 12, adjacent to the river, still needs repairs. It’s currently being played as a par three.

The March rainfall capped off a total of six floods to hit the course over the past 10 months, said course manager Zane Swenson. 

“Dating back 20 years, on average we’d have a flood every four years or so, but this year has been an exception,” Swenson said. 

Course superintendent Kelly Eilers has pumped a significant amount of water from the greens, and the holding pond has been full for more than a year.

“That’s never happened before, either,” Swenson said. “All in all, the golf course has been pretty resilient. Hopefully it’s over now.”