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Albemarle City Council approved a contract with WK Dickson on Monday night to perform a pilot watershed study of Little Long Creek.

WK Dickson, a Charlotte-based community infrastructure consulting firm, has worked with the city for several years to come up with a stormwater management plan. After much deliberation, the council, in a 4-3 vote last month, moved to go forward without enacting a stormwater plan.

The Little Long Creek watershed is about 7.6 square miles in area, according to WK Dickson, but only about 3.1 square miles of it are within Albemarle’s city limits.

The study, which will cost $500,000, will likely take a few months. Once completed, a final watershed report will be presented to the council. This would include problem areas that would need to be addressed.

The council also approved a resolution for the $250,000 the city received from the Golden LEAF Foundation last fall to help finance the watershed study. Council agreed during a special meeting last month to use $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to match Golden LEAF funds.

Funds could also come from an ARPA grant totaling $400,000 that the city applied for last fall to create a stormwater master plan for Little Long Creek. It would fund a separate study of Little Long Creek.

There are two sections of Little Long Creek which would both be covered by WK Dickson and the city. One section runs from Salisbury Avenue to the north all the way to Richfield. The Golden LEAF Foundation grant will cover a study of that portion of the creek.

The other portion runs south from Salisbury Avenue, past Don Montgomery Park, under N.C. Highway 24-27, before it leaves the city limits. The ARPA grant, if awarded, would cover a study that would examine that portion of Long Creek.