MARSHALL — There have been both major rain events and lots of street construction in Marshall over the past few years. As a result, it might be time to update Marshall’s stormwater models, city staff said this week.

The updates can help staff figure out where possible future drainage projects will be needed, Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson said at Monday’s meeting of the Marshall City Council.

Council members voted to approve a proposal from engineering firm Bolton & Menk to update city’s stormwater model, for a cost not to exceed $46,200.

“City staff reached out to Bolton & Menk for a proposal to do some review, first to update our storm water model that’s around five years old, and incorporate changes that have occurred over the past five years due to construction projects,” Anderson said Monday.

He said the proposal would also look at possible future opportunities for stormwater projects.

“We’ve had some recent high rain events that have given us some things to think about, and we’d like to analyze them in the model,” he said.

The analysis would help give Marshall city staff an idea of the costs and benefits of possible projects, “To make sure we’re going to get good returns,” he said.

The proposal did not go before the council’s Public Improvement and Transportation committee before going to the full council, Anderson said.

Instead, Anderson sent “very detailed” information to committee members by email, said council members Craig Schafer and James Lozinski. Committee members responded in support of taking the matter to the council.

“Everyone was in agreement that this was worthy of moving forward,” Schafer said.

“If it’s the will of the council to move forward with this, we would like to start sooner rather than later to start evaluating some of these improvements,” Anderson said.

Anderson said doing the stormwater analysis would not commit the city to doing any drainage projects. He said he would report back to the Public Improvement and Transportation Committee to discuss any future possible projects from the study.

Council members voted in favor of the $46,200 stormwater model analysis.