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By Buzz Trexler
Star Correspondent

The Elizabethton Regional Planning Commission on Thursday night gave final approval to the site plan for a new Northeast Community Credit Union branch that will replace the flood-damaged facility at 1321 U.S. 19E, though a nearby business owner continued to express reservations about how stormwater would be handled.

The site plan was first approved pending the stormwater evaluation during the March 6 meeting, when Charles LaPorte, representing Secure Stor LLC, 1323 U.S. 19E, requested final approval be delayed until his engineers had a chance to review the credit union’s plans. During Thursday night’s meeting, LaPorte noted that since the February meeting, the credit union had made changes to the plan in response to a request to increase the size of the stormwater piping, but he believed additional stormwater storage was needed as “insurance” for the credit union’s property as well as his own.

LaPorte told commissioners when the Secure Stor facility was constructed 12 years ago, a retention pond and associated piping were included because the area was designated as a special flood zone. LaPorte provided a March 13 letter from Stephen Ellis of Summitt Engineering Services LLC, the city’s consulting engineer, to Elizabethton Engineering Department Stormwater Coordinator Caleb Krebs, in which Ellis recommends “their design engineer should review the pumping equipment to verify capabilities” and “utilize any available areas that could be used to store additional stormwater generated by large, unforeseen, rainfall events.”

Northeast Community Credit Union President and CEO David LeVeau told commissioners the credit union has already made concessions based upon LaPorte’s concerns, and the existing pump was not included in the design’s 100-year rainfall calculations. Nonetheless, as long as the pump is working properly, it is an enhancement to the stormwater system.

“If the storage is a requirement, we’re happy to go back to a drawing board and hopefully get all this resolved,” LeVeau said. “But we feel like we have spent a lot of time, and if we have to postpone this another month, it is going to start delaying our progress and start hanging up some costs on some of that progress that’s been scheduled.”

In recommending approval of the site plan, Planning and Economic Development Director Rich DesGroseilliers said all stormwater requirements were met.

Commissioners Denna Bass, Bill Taylor, Myles Cook and James Little voted to approve the plan, with Wes Frazier voting against. Commissioner Curt Alexander was absent.