Three Lumberton men met with city leaders Monday to brainstorm solutions to fix flooding along West Walton Road near Highway 69. The meeting was called to attempted to clear up confusion for why drainage issues still exist in older residential areas.
"We also are citizens of this community and we expect the same level of protection as the high dollar developers," said Wayne Koehler.
Along with his neighbor Robert Harris, they entered city hall with ideas to improve the drainage structure along his street. "I'm hoping that something got accomplished today because several people have done their homework and brought it to the mayor's attention," said Harris.
Mayor Don Surrat let the concerned residents know that he is well aware of flooding issues that the city has spent three years, with help from Hardin County, running studies hoping to resolve the high waters for property owners like Koehler and Harris.
"But we've had like two inches of rain and I've looked up and my house is an island. It's getting worse," said Harris.
Since 2005 engineers have designed two retention ponds, the latest next to the Westwood Heights edition.
There's no option to push runoff into the already existing ponds. The best option have all residents along
West Walton Road and in similar areas allow the city and county to finish their studies on their properties.
All parties involved understand that property owners have the right to deny access to their land.
"We hope this is going to bring it to their attention enough where actually something is going to happen," said Harris in reference to both the city employees and those who are currently holding up progress.
"The excuse that the property owners won't let us go on their properties to do the studies, that is kind of a weak argument," added Koehler.
The short term solution from city manager Steve Clark and the other department heads was to increase maintenance on the drainage system that's already in place until the proper research can be conducted to engineer a solution to the flooding.
