Lizella neighbors
contend with flooding issues
| Subject: SWCC - 2923
South Lizella Road flooding Family blames field flooding on Macon-Bibb crews By JIM GAINES jgaines@macon.com June 8, 2014 Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/06/08/3139548/family-blames-field-flooding-on.html A Lizella family says Macon-Bibb County engineers caused a runoff problem in their hay field and are refusing to fix it. Engineering staff, however, say the current state of affairs only maintains the natural water flow and can’t be changed without hurting others. “I am so disappointed in this new Macon-Bibb County consolidated government,” said Roslyn Webb, who owns the property with her husband, Gregory. Her family has owned a hay field at 2923 South Lizella Road -- just off the unpaved Eubanks Street, which runs parallel to nearby Eisenhower Parkway -- for nearly a century, she said. For almost all that time, ditches along the property line diverted rainwater into a nearby creek, she said. But when the bed of Eisenhower Parkway was built up, a culvert was installed too high for the drainage system, Rosalyn Webb said. Gregory Webb said government workers, then employed by Bibb County, cut an opening in a small embankment to let the resulting runoff flow straight into their field. That keeps the field soggy, he said. “We can’t even get in to cut hay on it,” Gregory Webb said. “This has been going on for close to two years.” But the latest word from Macon-Bibb officials, a May 30 letter to Roslyn Webb from County Engineer David Fortson, says the status quo should stand. “The natural path for the water is through a cross drain under Eubanks Street that drains onto your property,” Fortson wrote. “If you were to erect a berm on your property that prevented the water from draining as it now does, you cold be sued for damages by your upstream neighbor.” Fortson was responding to an April 17 letter from the Webbs to Mayor Robert Reichert, which asked for the ditches along Eubanks Street to be dug out so the runoff would flow into the nearby creek. Roslyn Webb said Bibb County engineering staff insisted that the current flow was proper and that “water couldn’t run uphill” even if the ditches were deepened. In his letter, Fortson said that grading the ditch lines as the Webbs ask would significantly alter the water flow, requiring workers to enlarge the pipe and lower it by nearly 6 feet, more than doubling the flow onto properties downstream. “For all these reasons, I regret that we will be unable to do anything to alter the flow of the water from its current condition,” he wrote. Gregory Webb said Macon-Bibb Commissioner Ed DeFore urged them to write to Reichert. Repeated phone calls to government officials drew no real response, Gregory Webb said. “One person wants to push it off on another person,” he said. DeFore said the Webbs are “fine people,” and he’ll work with them however he can. But he urged careful study. “It takes a while. You don’t just go out there the next day or next week,” said DeFore, who represents the area. He praised engineering staff and the new Macon-Bibb County Commission as functioning much better than the former governments, but he said if the runoff water is flowing through public right of way, it’s the government’s responsibility to maintain the drainage system. Now the ground stays so soggy that a friend, cleaning up fallen tree limbs with a backhoe, got stuck there recently, Roslyn Webb said. “It took five hours with a tow truck to get the backhoe out,” she said. Fortson told Roslyn Webb that she should have a retention pond built, an idea she dismisses, she said. “He stated he could not allow water to hold in ditches because it would cause mosquitoes to breed,” Roslyn Webb said via email. “What does he think is happening in the hay field? Water is standing at the high point of the property.” She had a July 17 appointment to discuss the issue with Reichert, but she received a call Thursday informing her that the meeting had been canceled. That cancellation was confirmed Friday by Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore. Roslyn Webb said mayoral staff told her they would try to reschedule the meeting, but she wasn’t given a new date. To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489 map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/2923+S+Lizella+Rd/@32.8060286,-83.8233826,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x88f3f113cb3206eb:0x7d6e234ad138085a COMMENTS: Mike Ganas · Top Commenter · Macon, Georgia "That was our fault. We were wrong. We will fix it." Said no Bibb County government official ever. Cliff N Juanita Howard · Beacon GA About 90 percent of what is written in this article is totally false. I know this from first hand experience. Visit the site and you will see that this is the low area.....not created by anyone but God. |
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| David P. Fortson,
P.E. Bibb County Engineer dfortson@co.bibb.ga.us 478-621-6660 478-361-9682 (C) 478-621-666 (FAX) http://www.co.bibb.ga.us/engineering/engineering.aspx Planning and Zoning 682 Cherry Street, Suite 1000 Planning:(478)751-7460 |
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| Calvin Essex District Conservationist 801 Main Street Perry, GA 31069 Telephone: (478) 987-2280 FAX: 478-988-4781 District Conservationist Ray Jones – Fort Valley ray.jones@ga.usda.gov (478) 827-0016 Luke Crosson <lcrosson@gaswcc.org>, Luke Crosson Region V Representative Georgia Soil & Water Conservation Commission 4344 Albany Hwy. Dawson, GA 39842 229-995-6001 Office 229-854-5470 Cell http://gaswcc.georgia.gov/region-v 4344 Albany Highway Dawson, GA 39842 Phone: 229-995-6001 Regional Representative: Luke Crosson Secretary: Lancia Wyant |
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