Ditch, drainage issues pestering Newton Grove board

NEWTON GROVE — The need to find solutions for financial burdens related to ditch and drainage issues and the roadblocks to progress on the town’s new subdivision were addressed during Monday night’s town Board of Commissioners meeting.

The approval of the first plat for what will be the town’s 10.5-acre tract, which will provide 22 lots for potential new houses, was approved back in July. The subdivision is to be located on the west side of Carolina Street and north of West Grove Street.

While work on the new subdivision is finally moving forward, issues regarding the need for drainage and ditch maintenance in the West Grove area have rear its. The worst among those problems hinging on the cost that would need to be incurred to solve them.

Combined with that is also the added hiccup of some of the area in question being on private property. Nothing has been decided, but board members did mention that the desire is to have those homeowners “pitch in” to help cover future related costs for their properties.

Talks with those homeowners, along with TRC, who’s helping develop the subdivision, are in the works, board members noted.

“Just before the meeting, I got up with Tyrus (Clayton) with TRC; he called me,” pointed out Craig Warren, Newton Grove mayor. “Commissioner (Cody) Smith and I had met with TRC at the end of October, just before our November meeting. He (Tyrus) was going to speak with the subdivision owners to talk to them about possibly pitching in to help with a little bit of financial cost in this, as it will benefit them.

”We’re looking at it in this way — all of these issues that are coming up are on private property,” he continued. “So we’re trying to see if we can’t get some help from somebody other than just the town. I mean, we’ll do our part, we’ll do what we need to do, and I think y’all are all in agreement with that. But, in order to get the subdivision moving forward, he’s going to stress to them that it’d be to their advantage to kick in here a little bit, if they can,” the mayor stressed.

The seriousness of the need was further stressed by town clerk Amanda Bradshaw, who noted the problems the issues are causes for budgeting.

“Budget wise, we’re already at our budget, and it’s December, because of those two issues,” Bradshaw said. “The (homeowners) are going to have to start incurring some of those costs, because it’s just eating us up. Obviously, we want to make sure we’re doing what we can, but I mean, somethings going to have to give, and we need them to step up and help us with this.”

Warren reiterated that homeowners in that area were aware of this situation.

“They’re aware of it; I’ve talked to them about it, and Tyrus has talked to different ones as well, so we’re doing everything we can to try to keep them on board,” the mayor said. “I mean, again, this is to their advantage. When they get through all this and they sell that subdivision, all those maintenance cost and related issues are going to be on us. So they need to carry their part of the weight on this.”

Warren also said engineers have explained that further studies should be conducted, but he was reassured by Clayton that remedies fell under maintenance.

“The reports that came back, and naturally the Corps of Engineers always wants you to study something,” he said. “But, Tyrus said, ‘no, that’s not needed’ and he said, ‘Craig, what y’all are talking about doing here would be considered ditch maintenance.’ He said, ‘you shouldn’t have any issues with this.’ I said, Well, we’d feel much better with something in writing to that effect from the Corps of Engineers or TRC. That would really help us if we had something like that to ensure this is classified as ditch maintenance and not a major thing, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Warren noted that was all he had to report on current updates related to the drainage and ditch issues. He did add that he was hopeful to have something by the January board meeting presented from TRC.

“We are trying to do something, as these issues have been pushed down the road for a long time, and we’re trying to make it better for our residents that are already on West Grove Street,” he said. “I want us to buckle down and let’s try to do this and get this over with once and for all. Tyrus contacted me and said they just talked to their surveyor and they’ve got a meeting scheduled for sometime next week.

“He said a lot was going on the last few weeks and with the holiday coming up but he promised me he will have an answer to what they’re willing to do to help get this done before the January meeting,” Warren added. “Hopefully in January, we’ll have something where we can lay something on the table, that way we know how to move forward as well.“