Rain runoff into neighboring property was a primary concern at the Covington City Council meeting Tuesday night.

Two cases involving the drainage were heard at the meeting, one involving improvements at Covington Elementary School Library.

Donald Primes, who lives next door to the school on West 17th Street, said he experiences flooding on his property every time it rains due to runoff from the school’s building project. He has problems accessing his property due to the flooding. “I do not feel I am being treated fairly at all… You are supposed to be here to protect the people, but all I see is you working with the school board,” Primes told the Council.

City engineer Tom Schreiner and building inspector Al Courouleau said that the renovation project at the school is not yet completed and the school is still due to make changes the would relieve the situation.

Matt Faust suggested that a meeting with Primes and the St. Tammany Parish School Board be arranged to settle the matter.

The city must issue an occupancy permit when the renovation is complete before the library can be used.

The other runoff case involves property that is being flooded by runoff from a newly constructed home next door. Ted Bruning at 522 W. 15th Ave. said that the process allowing his new neighbor to use fill-in construction of the home has elevated the property causing the neighboring property belonging to Bruning to flood and hold water.

One solution may be to regrade the swale between the properties and alley work behind the house that will allow better drainage of the property.

Whether the problem is civil between the neighboring or a city problem was also discussed. While the city can make changes on public property, including rights-of-ways, it cannot do work on private property, said city attorney Deborah Foshee.

Bruning contends that the city allowed the fill that has created the problem, so the city should be responsible. Courouleau will inspect the property to seek the source of the problem.

In other matters, councilman-at-large Matt Faust was elected council president for the upcoming year, with outgoing council president Trey Blackall, also a councilman-at-large, serving as vice president.

A public hearing will be scheduled with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other concerned parties regarding the dredging of the Bogue Falaya River from Louisiana Highway 437 to its convergence with the Tchefuncte River for the purpose of de-snagging and dredging the river to an acceptable level that will be determined by the Corps.

The council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the de-snagging and dredging. Covington native, Kay Morse had recently completed a petition drive for the project. The petition will be presented at the hearing with the Corps.