Martinsville, Indiana

in a floodplain, who are now in a floodplain, and those who thought they were protected by a levee are now going into a floodplain.” The city is also investing in a new 8000-foot- long levee to address the flooding issue, at a cost of approximately $20 million. Another $5 million is going towards the rehabilitation of an original levee that belongs to the state, bringing it up to meet current standards and codes. In other infrastructure projects, Oakes reports that Martinsville is bringing water and sewer into a major housing development in the city, a $3 million investment. Carrying those utilities under I-69 to the city’s east side is also in the works, opening that area up for future development. Stormwater is another issue that we address when doing our planning. Oakes relays that the city has multiple projects on the go, in the form of both dry wells and piping. He adds, “We also have a sewer lining project, some of our original sewer lines in the older area of town need to be properly lined so that we don’t have leakage from those. We had a state mandate to get rid of phosphorus leaving our wastewater treatment plant to the river. So, just this year we became operational with a phosphorus removal plant that cleanses our water and sends it onto the river.” The highway access has brought growth to the community, where currently there are 450 new MART INSV I LLE INDI ANA