West side residents give city officials an earful
Published Friday October 9th, 2009
Concerns: Anger over flooding, sewage and other issues spills out
SAINT JOHN - The issue of backed up sewage and storm water bubbled to the surface at a community meeting in Milford Thursday night.
Nearly 100 residents from the west side neighbourhoods of Milford and Randolph packed a meeting room and grilled city staff and Mayor Ivan Court, fed up with floods, poor drinking water, lacklustre snow-plowing and a long list of other concerns.
"I bought at the top of a hill, and I'm flooding," said Aidan Kane loudly, standing up to address the room. "You don't have to spend $250,000 to find out what's wrong. Let's fix it."
The River Hill Drive resident was responding to a plea from the mayor for the meeting attendees to calm down after a few angry outbursts interrupted a presentation by the city's municipal operations commissioner Paul Groody.
"I have the same problems you have," said Court, explaining his home off Gault Road flooded during the past three storms. "This is a problem with old infrastructure. What they're trying to discover is what's underground."
"Water!" yelled out a frustrated resident.
Groody said knee-jerk reactions by the city in the past is exactly why the municipality has problems with pipes and sewers now.
There are areas in Milford and Randolph where 10-inch pipes drain into 8-inch pipes, for example.
The problem is compacted because there are old lines in the neighbourhood that collect both storm water and sewage - causing sever backups during big storms such as post-tropical storm Danny in late August.
"I won't be intimidated by anybody. I won't be threatened by anybody," Groody said to the crowd. "We're going to find a solution that works."
In July, the city hired Terrain Group, an engineering firm, for $250,000, to evaluate the sanitary and stormwater system underground, and try to find out ways to mediate the problems, Groody said.
The city identified 20 priority drainage basins in its 2006 storm water management strategy, and the Milford basin is one of them.
Terrain employees want to talk to anyone who has experienced flooding, he added. They are going through the neighbourhood, taking video of the underground pipes, and making minor improvements as they go along.
"We have a serious sewer problem in this area of the city," he said, and it's going to take decades to fix.
He said one action every resident can take is to make sure their roof leaders or foundations don't drain into sanitary sewers.
"These kinds of things cause problems for your homes," he said.
After nearly an hour passed, a frustrated Milford resident asked that anyone with flooding issues go to a separate room to explain their problems to city staff. The meeting was set up for Milford residents, but several Randolph residents with flooding problems took up much of the allotted time.
After some people moved upstairs to speak with Terrain engineers and city staff, Groody tried to address a list of nine concerns drawn up by Milford residents.
Residents were worried about a fire hydrant on Allison Street, which has been flushing with water from April to October for the past three years.
Groody said the reason is to disinfect the water as it moves through old pipes. Once the city replaces the century-old Dever Road transmission line - one of six major water projects announced this summer - workers will be able to clean and line old water mains, which will improve water quality "immeasurably," he said.
Other issues brought up included traffic calming, water metering, and demolishing a decrepit home next to the Murphyville Christmas display.
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