It's time once again to voice my opinion on something that has turned the corner of Third St. and Highway 11 into a flood zone. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing things within the city limits and as I can tell, what began as a project to remove a building has turned one of the lots on Third St. into a storm water diverting monster. Anyone familiar with the area will know that Johnny Kelley owns the lots between Third and Forth St. along Highway 11 where Kelley's Trucks and More has a business. A couple years ago the church building that sat on the corner of Third St. and Highway 11 was razed. After the removal of the debris, fill material was hauled in to raise the level of the lot to be level with the highway leaving the property line on the north and east sides lower than the lot on which the material was laid. The lot is now used for parking vehicles and trailers from the Kelley business. The leveling of the lot has changed the water drainage flow which takes in all of the water shed from Fifth St. to Third St. along the north side of Highway 11. What used to be a ditch along the north side of the highway to Third St has been removed in front of the Kelly property and all water flowing to the Third St. drainage whistle now diverts from in front of the Kelley business north up the alley until it reaches the property line where the fill was ended to level the property. the water then travels east passing through the yard of Lori Mayfield where it pools to form a small lake in her front yard. When her front yard fills to capacity it begins to flow east over Third St. and onto the properties of the Catholic Church and down my front walk and driveway. There is a huge drainage whistle that sits at the corner of Third St. and Highway 11, very little of the water drains into it cause the ditch on the east side of the Kelly property was removed and now is used by vehicles as a place to turn around. In fact there are no ditches that go to the drainage whistle at that corner. Any remaining ditch that does exist doesn't drain cause of the elevation. The city recently came down and tried to remedy the problem by placing an undersized whistle in front of Mayfields property and hoping that the water would run north to the Chestnut drainage whistle. In all effort this was a major FAIL which was realized in the last rain. it doesn't take an engineer to see that water doesn't flow uphill. Why try to make water go uphill for 150 ft into a half plugged whistle on Chestnut when you can go 50 ft. to a 36" whistle that's not plugged and all you have to do is dig a ditch that was once there, before it was covered over. From what I've seen this type of thing happens all over Barnsdall. Do the city workers or council not know the requirements for doing the job right the first time? If so, then this water drainage problem on Third St, or any other street would have never happened. The (BCO) Barnsdall City Ordinances cover many things on this subject. None of which I know of have been followed. from the diverting of storm water to other properties to using the wrong size whistles on drainage ditches. So what have the families in this area done about the situation? They have talked with the Mayor and city workers numerous times and what have they received in return...more storm water.
I'll tell ya.....life's a DITCH!!!
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| Water coming across Third St onto the front walk |
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Water coming from across Third St. down the driveway.
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| A few days after the rain the water is still standing. Also note the new turn around that people use instead of going through the car wash. |
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