Ground broken for Feather Creek Project

CLINTON, Ind. (WTHI) - Federal, state and local officials held a groundbreaking Tuesday for the first portion of a project to ease flooding along Feather Creek in Clinton, Ind.

Community members first began pushing for the upgrades in the 1930s, and the project also drew attention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the following decades. Still, funds for the project were never delivered.

That changed in Spring 2012 when the Army Corps and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs approved funds to dig out the creek, strengthen eroding banks and widen the creek’s channel.

The first portion of the project, which organizers said would finish by November 1, will move a storm sewer to make room for the widening of the creek. After that, crews would begin digging out the creek, widening it and re-planting trees and rocks along the creek, a process they predict will take between six and eight months.

In all, the total cost of the project is estimated at $1,854,696, with $1,138,500 funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, $502,500 funded by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs and $35,484 funded locally.