Harmony business owners facing realities of potential flooding
HARMONY — Zachary Waltz knows he can’t control the rising waters that threaten his popular Harmony restaurant, but that doesn’t make the looming risk of flooding any easier to swallow.
The owner of Union Brothers Brewing said he is on high alert any time Connoquenessing Creek begins to spill out onto the streets of the borough.
“There’s definitely concern,” Waltz said.
Earlier this year, when the creek was starting to crest over with the snow and rain, he expected the worst.
“We were fully expecting to be flooded out,” he said.
Just last year, heavy rainfall in early April shut down streets and sent first responders scrambling to keep up with the increased call volume.
The floodwaters put local businesses and residential properties under siege on two occasions within the span of two weeks.
Severe weather has taken its toll on several businesses, particularly those that operate on the lowest elevations in the borough.
“It definitely affects business,” said Waltz, while recalling last year’s flooding. “We had to close two days, plus all the cleanup, and then our basement got flooded.”
For similar eateries that rely on a steady stream of daily traffic, like Wunderbar Coffee & Crepes, any kind of closure can be detrimental to the bottom line.
“The biggest frustration is closing,” said owner Seth Murphy, who noted that he tracks Connoquenessing Creek water levels on the United States Geological Survey website to give himself a heads-up during storms.
“A restaurant our size runs on razor-thin margins, so any time you close for anything, it’s always kind of a big deal,” Murphy said.
Meanwhile, owners of Dambach Lumber & Supply Company said they lost thousands of dollars in material during the spring storms last year.
“It was all the way up into the parking lot, and it was probably 3 feet deep in the lumberyard,” said manager Alexander Magill, whose family has owned the business for more than 65 years. “I had lumber floating around, and it was mostly ruined. Luckily, we got all the trucks out of there the night before. There’s just nothing you can do about it when it’s coming.”
The lingering threat of floodwater has been detrimental to an already difficult parking situation around Mercer and German streets, which are two of the roads that are prone to complete washouts.
Waltz said it’s made him think twice about upgrading certain parts of his parking lot, which oftentimes is left devastated following any significant storms.
“We’ve done all kinds of stuff and it immediately crumbles or washes every time it takes water on,” he said. “To pave our lot, it’s a massive investment, and if we do it, it’s just going to wash away. That’s what our concerns and fear are right now.”
Properly managing stormwater has been a priority for Harmony officials, but a lack of significant funding has created roadblocks.
About a year after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021, which marked a $1.9 trillion investment intended to help the country recover.
Butler County received $36.4 million from the $6.15 billion that was allocated to Pennsylvania counties, metropolitan cities and local government units to meet pandemic response needs.
Through a 2021 resolution, county commissioners devoted $15.6 million to cover infrastructure project costs across 31 municipalities.
In early October, Harmony received an additional $25,000 for a new award not to exceed $762,995 to address stormwater issues along Spring Street and Old Little Creek Road.
“(The project) is basically stormwater mitigation from behind Dambach Lumber in Swampoodle down to the Connoquenessing Creek,” said Harmony Borough Council President Greg Such, who helped spearhead an effort to acquire those funds.
“It’s still in the engineering and property easement process,” added Jerry Andree, the Southwest Butler Stormwater Planning Group facilitator. “It’s nowhere near the construction phase yet.”
Neighboring Jackson Township received an additional $50,000 for a new award not to exceed $1.15 million for flooding on German Street, which could also alleviate the flow of water on surrounding streets.
Both of those projects are slated to begin later this year. Under the terms of the American Rescue Plan Act, all of the money must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026, which also means they’ll need to be completed by that date.
While those mitigation efforts progress, business owners can only hope for the best moving forward.
“We keep an eye on it, but there’s literally nothing you can do,” Magill said. “Outside of raising everything up in the air or moving out of the area, there’s nothing to do unless the engineers with the state have a solution.”
