RICHMOND —
Two Richmond residents spoke during a city commission work session Tuesday afternoon asking that immediate action be taken to combat the city’s surface water problems.
Heavy downpours of rain in early August and again in early September caused flooding in several areas of the city.
Mayor Jim Barnes and three members of the commission listened sympathetically but offered no immediate solutions.
Mike Lane of Hanover Avenue said flooding on the low-lying streets had been a problem for more than 30 years. However, it worsened in recent years after the city approved development of the Richwood subdivision and the construction of a second building for the Madison County Health Department. Both are on Boggs Lane, on a higher elevation and are only a short distance from Hanover Avenue.
Repeated requests to past commissions and administrations, going back more than 30 years, had produced no results, Lane said.
Both Mayor Jim Barnes and City Manager Jimmy Howard said they had inspected the area and acknowledged the problems Lane outlined.
Howard said Lane was correct in his report that water was flowing up out of storm drains in the neighborhood after a recent rain because he had observed it. The water was so forceful it had even raised manhole covers, the city manager said.
“We’re getting drenched,” said Lane, who added that he was tired of officials coming to view the problem but never doing anything about it. “I want you all to fix it.”
During the early August storm, water flowing from the Richmond subdivision’s retention pond and from the health department’s parking lot had run across Boggs Lane and flowed down Rice Court to Hanover Avenue, Lane said.
Sightseers who sped along Hanover Avenue and Rice Court added insult to injury by creating waves as they drove along, sending water falling against his house. All the while, he tried to keep dry with a towel over his head as he attempted o unclog strom-drain grates.
The mayor said poor planning decisions by the city in the past may have contributed to the problem.
“Unfortunately, we’ve got (flooding problems) all over town,” Barnes said.
At the Sept. 11 regular commission meeting, Barnes said the city’s storm-water problems were extensive and longstanding, and a solution would not be quick or easy.
Even if the storm-drain project from Sunset Avenue across Tates Creek Road and the Water Street project scheduled to start next year were already completed, Barnes said, the city still would have had flooding from the two recent storms.
The mayor said North Second Street “looked like a river” during the recent rain when he was responding to a call to view flooding on Walnut Street.
The city’s planning department has asked residents to submit dated photos of the recent flooding so problems can be documented and assessed. Lane said he had submitted a 60-second video of the flooding to the city.
Estelle Cruse, who owns property on Walnut Street, also spoke to the commission as she had done on Aug. 14. Surface water was not just coming up to the house on Walnut Street, she said, it was coming inside. Barnes said he had witnessed the problem.
The problem was more than simply surface water, Cruse said. A sanitary sewer appears to have been breeched in the area, and storm water was forcing raw sewage to the surface, she said.
Scott Althauser, Richmond Utilities superintendent, attended Tuesday’s meeting and said he would look into the situation.
During the Sept. 11 commission meeting, Commissioner Jason Morgan asked that a discussion of the surface-water issues with the city’s planning staff be put on the work-session agenda. However, Planning Director Jason Hart and most of his staff were attending a previously scheduled out-of-town conference Tuesday.
Local News
Mayor: Flooding problems extensive and longstanding
Solution won’t be easy or quick
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