ELWOOD — Every time it rains, Sherry King’s property along West 700 North is flooded with water that never seems to drain, and she’s fed up.
King, who lives in the 8900 block of West 700 North between Elwood and Frankton, said the problem started about two and a half years ago. She said she believes county highway workers broke a drainage tile near her property while resurfacing a road.
Highway Superintendent Scott Harless said he’s confident his crew didn’t damage drainage tiles, primarily because his crews spend much of their time repairing them to keep roads from flooding.
County Commissioner John Richwine offered a different cause for King’s soggy lawn. “I know that problem well. The reason it’s flooding is there is a legal drain that runs through there. ... It causes flooding because the drain is not functioning properly. It would’ve flooded without the drain, but the drain’s not functioning properly so ... .”
Richwine said the county is aware of the flooding issue, but cannot fix the legal drain because there’s no money set aside for that particular drain.
According to Richwine, drains must be put on maintenance so that the county can charge nearby residents an additional tax to maintain the drain.
The legal drain near King’s property, he said, was never put on maintenance, so there’s no money stashed away to fix problems.
County residents only pay into the legal drains they use, based on the direction of their own water drainage.
Even if the residents near the drain put it on maintenance and started paying taxes for the drain now, Richwine said, it could be over a decade before there’s enough money to fix the legal drain.
At $357 per acre with 2,100 acres of legal drain to cover, he said, residents would need to pay $780,000 to get the drain fixed.
King said she isn’t sure about maintenance and drain repairs and taxes, but said she’s sure about one thing. “I just want them to fix the problem.”
Contact Brandi Watters: 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
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