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Fairfax Voters To Decide On Huntington Floodwall

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Workers in Hungington, Va. clean up after flooding once again inundated the region -- voters will soon be able to decide on whether Huntington should be equipped with a floodwall.
Jonathan Wilson
Workers in Hungington, Va. clean up after flooding once again inundated the region -- voters will soon be able to decide on whether Huntington should be equipped with a floodwall.

Voters in Fairfax County might get the chance to voter on whether to fund a floodwall in the Huntington neighborhood.

For more than 30 years, studies have shown that Huntington needs a floodwall. Last week's torrential rains once again forced the evacuations of streets that have experienced serious problems over and over again.

Back in 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended installing a floodwall from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to Telegraph Road. But the cost-benefit analysis showed that the properties it would protect weren't valuable enough to justify the expense.

So nothing happened, and now the neighborhood has been hit again.

This week, Mount Vernon Supervisor Gerry Hyland suggested that county voters should decide the issue in a bond referendum. If his proposal is approved, the $30 million expenditure would be put to voters in November 2012.

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