Richwood officials are looking into having water issues on two village streets added to a list of priority areas.
At the regular village council meeting on Monday, Council member Von Beal suggested having areas of Wood Street and Beatty Avenue on the village’s northeast side added to the list of flooding locations to be fixed.
“They get a lot of water laying in their yards,” he said. “If there are established storm sewer lines there, I would think we would want them open.”
He said he didn’t know if lines existed there previously, but said it could be something the village checks on as other properties in town have been worked on.
“We had the same thing that we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to clear up, going through people’s properties, why can’t we do it here?” he said. “If we already have established lines.”
Mayor Scott Jerew and Village Administrator Monte Asher said some work had been done in that area by a previous administration.
“We ran water lines through there years ago,” he said. “I don’t know where they went. That was before me.”
Asher said he wasn’t sure that the village did have established lines.
“We don’t have any records of any, other than field tiles, they’re not our tiles,” he said. “I can check on that drainage.”
Council member Jackie Hamilton, who is also a resident in that area, said she can confirm the water issues.
“On a heavy rain, I’ll get (several inches) of water,” she said. “It slopes right there and dips between two houses, so I never raised the issue because I just accepted it flooded.”
She said there have been a few issues with the land off those two streets, including a vacated alley and drainage tile.
“It was my understanding that there was a drain tile that ran through the back behind my house…and that it was crushed,” she said. “There was a drain somewhere that had concrete poured in it.”
She said those issues have likely contributed to the flooding.
Beal said the area could be looked at by Craig Mescher with Access Engineering Solutions who is assisting the village with its water project.
Also at the meeting Monday, council discussed street projects around the village including the paving of South Franklin Street. Jerew said there was a correction from last week’s meeting that work on Gill Street and Bomford Street would likely have to wait.
“We’re not going to do Bomford and Gill. With the repaving, we’re going to wait for (crews) to grind it down,” he said. “When we do the whole project, that’s when (crews) will top it to Bomford Street.”
He said the contract originally stated work would be done from Bomford to Gill, then skip paving a rough patch of road on Franklin Street south of Gill, but then doing from the corporation limits to Route 4.
He said it made more sense to hold off as residents would likely question why a section of the road was skipped in the midst of improvements.
“So (the state) is going to wait until we get our project started and they’re going to do it all at once,” Jerew said.
Asher said that work likely won’t be done until next year.
Council also noted residents coming into the village from the south will notice that a section of Route 37 north of Claibourne Cemetery is closed. Crews closed the road on Monday for work on a culvert. Signs posted nearby said the closure could be for 30 days, but council said the work could be a shorter timeframe.