Homeowner appeals to City over flooding

For nine years an Edgefield family has seen their water problems increase until now, they have had enough.  And they want someone to help because, they say, everything they know to do has been tried.

Roads constructed in the Edgefield subdivision were accepted by the City of Hohenwald after construction by the developers, Bill and Bret Hankins, but in the situation of Lori McKinney, every time it rains, her crawl space floods, sometimes with as much as six inches of water.  Her property is the lowest point in the neighborhood and three roads help channel the water into her front yard.

Hankins gave her a sump pump, she said, to help with the problem and said he had water under his house too.  But with more than seven inches of rain in September and record rainfall in July, McKinney’s pump was working overtime.

City employee Billy Jackson spent the summer, during his off duty hours, trying to help amend the problem by grading the lot with his personal equipment so water was channeled away from the house.  He also added extensions to the downspouts, he told both the Hohenwald Planning Commission on Monday and the City Council on Tuesday, to ensure water from gutters did not end up under the home.

“I had to replace my carpet,” McKinney said, because the pad underneath was damp and beginning to mold.  A funny smell in the home was identified as black mold, a problem for McKinney’s daughter who is allergic, she said.

Furthermore, she said, whenever more dirt is moved with new developments, silt and dirt wash onto her drive resulting in the need for pressure washing the muddy concrete.

After every rain.

Contractor Bret Hankins, in a telephone interview Wednesday morning, said this has been a year of an exceptional amount of rain.  “We have talked with them,” he continued.  We plan to work with the McKinney’s to correct the problem.  “We don’t want there to be any problems out at Edgefield,” he concluded.

City Planner Jim Lech informed the Planning Commission a hydrology study would have prevented the problem.  “This is why planning commissions should require hydrology studies everytime,” he said.

Jackson reminded the Council Tuesday afternoon the contractor had installed an eight inch drain in the street and the City of Hohenwald had added three more 10 inch drains.  “But that is not enough,” he said.

Part of the problem, Planning Commission member and City Councilman Don Barber told the Council, is water gets so high as it washes down the street, it exceeds the height of the curb and spills over into the McKinney front yard.  Then the curb prevents the water from returning to the street where it could reach the drain.

Mayor Don Jones and the Council agreed the City of Hohenwald would take immediate corrective action for problems in the street, but the contractor would need to be contacted by the City for any corrective action for which they would be responsible.