VIENNA — The Maries County Commission heard concerns from a resident about the Maries Road 213 bridge project and flooding caused by the April 4 rain during the April 7 meeting.

Resident Tina Crawford joined the commission for its meeting to speak about her disappointment with the county’s response to flooding the previous week. She lives adjacent to the Maries Road 213 bridge over Fly Creek, which the county plans to replace this year, and the creek overflowed. Water rose almost to her house though it did not flood the interior.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman opened the conversation by asking if Crawford wanted to discuss the bridge project. She and her husband had not yet signed the paperwork to agree to the replacement.

Crawford said her main concern was that the creek underneath the bridge would be cleared. Debris under the bridge is what caused the water to back up onto her land. Some of it had been there for more than a year. She also took issue with what she said Western District Commissioner Patrick Kleffner had told her on the phone when she called him about the blockage.

“He told me that I was more than welcome to get my chainsaw and go do it myself,” she said. “I tried to be professional, and I understand, but we were in a very dire situation, and I didn’t think that was appropriate.”

“I think what I told you first was I was not getting a chainsaw and swimming out in the water to cut the trees,” Kleffner said. “I was not going to die getting it out of there because there was nothing we could do until the water went down.”

Kleffner said he repeatedly asked Crawford what she wanted him to do about the flooding. He did not feel safe following through with her suggestion to remove debris by driving a backhoe onto the bridge.

“We all want to go home to our families at the end of the day,” he said. “If I could have gotten out there, I would have gone out there and done it myself.”

Kleffner said that after the water went down, he went back to the bridge to look at the debris, and not all of the blockage was old material. Some limbs were green and had washed under the bridge during the flooding. He apologized that the road crew had not yet taken care of the debris because it was busy fixing county roads that had washed out so they were accessible in case of emergency.

Crawford said she never told Kleffner to hang over the bridge or risk his life. She had asked about a backhoe, and Kleffner responded that he did not feel safe on the bridge. However, Crawford said she saw him cross the bridge several times after the conversation.

Kleffner apologized again and said he crossed the bridge once the water had started going down.