CEDAR FALLS - On Monday night the City Council struggled with how to get water out of one North Cedar neighborhood while, across the hall, the Board of Adjustment sorted through a request to rebuild a home severely damaged in the June flood.

The council, meeting as a committee of the whole to address flooding issues, heard from residents in the Joanne Street neighborhood about water still ponding in their yards nearly two months after the record flood.

Residents of the neighborhood, on the far north end of the city off of Dunkerton Road, are searching for answers as to how to finally get dry. Water filled basements on the block and climbed several feet into the main floor of some homes. But even after the floodwaters receded, standing water has made cleaning up and moving on difficult.

City public works director Bruce Sorensen said the area presents some unique challenges.

"If there was a magic bullet out there we'd pull it out and stick it in the gun right now," Sorensen said.

Carrie Dean, a Joanne Street resident, said something had to have changed in recent years regarding how water flows through the neighborhood.

"Since '93 we really have not had standing water out there," Dean said.

But many of the residents of that street have seen water stand for nearly two months, and for some who no longer have standing water, their yards feel mushy and still saturated. Residents asked the city to pump ground water out, clear ditches, tile the neighborhood or do anything that could help rid them of the water.

City staff members said the neighborhood lies in a low spot and that saturated ground, standing water in nearby areas and a high water table make it difficult to get water out of the neighborhood. The area has drainage set up to take the water out, but it gets backed up by water downstream as well.

"There's not enough grade fall to get water out of that area," Sorensen said.

In the end, the council agreed to have city staff go out to meet with residents and review possible problems and solutions. The city will test a drainage pipe for the neighborhood to ensure it is not blocked.

While the council discussed the Joanne Street problems in the council chambers, the Board of Adjustment dealt with the plight of Robert Sheerer and his mother, Nancy. The Sheerers own a home at 1804 Cottage Row Road that was swept off its foundation during the flood.

The Sheerers wanted to rebuild the home and raise it up higher to avoid future flood damage. They butted up against a city policy not to allow homes that suffer more than 50 percent damage to be rebuilt in the floodway.

While the city staff report revealed the house was the only home on Cottage Row to be knocked off its foundation in the flood, many residents of that neighborhood attended the meeting to support the Sheerers. Many of those neighbors feared a decision not to allow rebuilding could set a precedent which would keep them from rebuilding their properties if they had a similar problem in future floods.

In the end, the board approved a variance that will allow the Sheerers to rebuild.

Contact Jon Ericson at (319) 291-1461 or jonathan.ericson@wcfcourier.com.