If this were spring and all three waterways coursing through Austin were flooding, things would be different.

That's how Austin businessman Kyle Klaehn feels.

"The mayor has said the cost benefit ratio is not large enough to qualify for federal funds to tackle this problem in any another way," Klaehn said. "But, maybe, focusing on the watershed that brings all the water into the city of Austin is such a way."

Buffer strips, retention ponds and diversion pools in the watershed could alleviate flooding problem s in Austin that have plagued the city in 1999, 2000 and 3001, conservationists, like Klaehn, say.

Each spring except 2002, the Cedar River, Dobbins Creek and Turtle Creek have flooded in recent years.

The waters have inundated homes, businesses and public properties. The result was extensive and expensive cleanup efforts, loss of business, interruption of daily lives and in some cases the evacuation of homes.

The city of Austin's response has been to acquire buildings in the flood plain, relocate the occupants and clear the properties of any structures.

Still standing in harm's way are such places as the Austin Eagles headquarters, B&J Bar, Stuttgart Tan and Travel, The Hardy Geranium,

and Double K Speciality, among others, near the intersection of East Oakland Place and 4th Street.

Further up Oakland Place East, Jim's Super Valu, Doors & Floors and Lerum's Star Liquor have also been frequent targets of flooding.

A small group of business-owners and residents, frequently victimized by flooding in Austin, continue their efforts to seek alternative solutions to the problem.

They call themselves FACTS or Floodway Action

Citizens Task Source.

The key word in the group's title is "Source." That, the origin of flooding, is where they believe Austin's flooding

problems can be solved.

The FACTS group meets 7 p.m. Monday at the Austin Eagles Club and the public is invited. City and Mower County officials are encouraged to attend, according to Klaehn.

"We believe the idea proposed by the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District a long time ago is still the answer," Klaehn said.

That idea was a watershed coordinator to focus exclusively on the situation in the Cedar River watershed. While the idea was discussed, it was quickly rebuffed by both city and Mower County officials as unworkable.

The FACTS group hopes to resurrect it.

Lora Friest, who is watershed coordinator for the Upper Iowa Watershed, will be the guest speaker at Monday night's meeting.

Friest serves a 640,000 acres area in three Upper Midwest states, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

"For the last 2 1/2 years, she has worked without any local costs involved," Klaehn said. "In that time, she has obtained $1.2 million

in monies from private and public sources to fund her work to tackle watershed issues. That's a true cost benefit ratio at work if I ever saw one."

Klaehn, who owns the Double K Speciality Inc. business,

thinks the watershed coordinator idea touted by the Mower County SWCD is an idea that remains viable.

"We know the problems Austin has when it floods and how long can they keep buying homes to battle flooding?" he said. "We also know the problems they're having in the Hollandale area after the dredging of Turtle Creek. They're losing valuable topsoil to flooding and they're losing farmers."

"We have to do something about this problem at the source," he said.