FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — The City of Florence is moving forward with plans to improve its stormwater system.

City Council Monday passed the second reading of an ordinance that outlines several sites that are now in line to get upgrades.

“Anybody that’s been in Florence during a heavy rain and sees all the streets flood knows that stormwater infrastructure is absolutely critical,” city councilman George Jebaily said.

The ordinance outlines just over $5.6 million in improvements across a dozen sites in the city. Included on that list is work on Dargan and Elm, Oakland Ave and Timrod Park.

“One of their criteria they look at is where are the most troublesome areas,” Jebaily said. “And part of it is customer complaint driven, but part of it is just observation of what areas flood the worst. It’s addressing where we have the worst flooding.”

Jebaily said that this ordinance is not a comprehensive fix, but will help some of the worst issues. He says there is more work to do beyond this, especially as some neighborhoods age.

“You have the same rainfalls on one part of town, where you have these older neighborhoods, and another part of town where you have the newer neighborhoods- it’s not such a problem in the newer neighborhoods,” Jebaily said. “Because you have those different regulations and the retention ponds. In the older neighborhoods- big problem.”

The money for these projects will be sourced from a bond reissue which will be coming up in January, according to Jebaily.

Here’s a full list of the projects slated.

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