As municipal projects go, stormwater management isn’t, as Sterling Ward 2 Alderman Joe Strabala-Bright described it, “sexy.” But the city’s work on those projects took the spotlight during the Sterling City Council’s March 2 budget study session.

“I really appreciate what the city’s been doing. I know these projects aren’t sexy projects. No one is thinking ‘oh, I’m so glad they’re putting in that retention pond over there,” Strabala-Bright said after Sterling City Manager Scott Shumard gave details of the city’s stormwater management fund.

Shumard said, that as of next month, the city will have about $7.5 million in that fund. They will use $4.7 million for the Griswold/Woodburn Avenue project. The next two major projects are the Meadowlands retention project and work in the Highland Park neighborhood.

Strabala-Bright said that with historic and record rainfall events becoming more common, ways to manage a massive, sudden influx of rainfall become more important.

“What we’ve been seeing is more and more of these really historic rainfall events. Are we setting ourselves up to be able to manage some of those large-scale events if they were to happen?” he asked.

One of the city’s recent and major stormwater projects was construction of the retention pond behind Northland Mall and off of Lynn Boulevard.

“I think the biggest one is probably the one on Lynn Boulevard behind Northland Mall. That was the biggest one because not only is that catching the water in that area but from the Mineral Spring Subdivision. That was our biggest concern, plus the flooding around the Northland Park Apartments,” Shumard said.

Stormwater management also consists of smaller projects and Shumard said the city has been checking off projects on its stormwater management plan.

“Dillon Avenue was one of them. The North Central Phase was one of them and that included Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue. We put a detention in at Sanborn. I think we’ve hit the highest-priority ones that have been our biggest issues,” Shumard said.

Shumard said one additional benefit for the city is reduced stress on the city’s wastewater treatment plant in times of heavy rain, as retention ponds catch and hold rainfall that otherwise could have put strain on the system.

“The other big thing for us with stormwater has been the I&I [inflow and infiltration] part of it,” he said.