Construction Begins on Cahill Detention Basin

The light poles and backstop at Cahill Park baseball field came down Tuesday, marking the beginning of a four-month-long detention basin project that will bring rain relief to the south end of the village.

The public will not be able to use Cahill park or the parking lot until the project is completed. The tennis courts, pavilion and playground area will remain open for public use. The project is expected to be completed by October 1.

The project will incorporate Friends of Bay Baseball's plans to install an artificial turf infield. The booster organization's $400,000 remodeling plans also include two dugouts, a new scoreboard and concrete stadium seating. The project received a  and a .

The Cahill detention basin will create an eight- to nine-foot drop on the north end of the park. By allowing roughly 500,000 cubic feet of rain water to drain into the park, the basin would provide flood relief to at least 100 homes in the southern half of the village.

After 24 to 48 hours in the retention basin, the rain water would drain southward through a recessed passageway and empty into the storm sewer at Sheffield Avenue, then through a Hampton storm sewer before eventually discharging into the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park.

The Cahill Park project is one piece of a larger storm water management plan that will receive $3.1 million in FEMA funding. FEMA announced in April that it would provide 75 percent of the project's total cost, with the state's Wisconsin Emergency Management agency and the village each contributing 12.5 percent of the funds, or $523,922 each.

With the Cahill plan and new pipe upgrades in place, the village's southwestern drainage basin – which can currently manage 2.6 inches in a 24-hour period – would then be able to handle 3.6 inches in a 24-hour period, or 5.9 inches in a 24-hour period with street ponding.