SEBASTIAN — It’s going to take way more than a plunger to solve Sebastian’s drainage problems, and things are getting soggy . . . and tense.
Long-standing drainage issues remain unaddressed and some residents who have been waiting, literally, for years are feeling forgotten.
Not so: The fact is, City staff is keenly aware of and working diligently to correct the current situation and to create a long-term maintenance schedule to keep the City’s hundreds of miles of quarter-round ditches, laterals, swales and canals functioning properly henceforth.
Sebastian’s drainage system is composed of a network of arteries, large and small, all ultimately flowing into the lagoon, and the preponderance of the City’s drainage woes are the result of these various water carriers becoming clogged.
Things began to get dicey during the economic collapse, when the City was forced to cut back in many areas, including public works. Maintenance staff hiring was delayed and equipment replacement postponed. Major rain events exacerbated the situation. Eventually the system – and the residents – felt the strain.
Things came to a head this fall when yards and streets flooded again during heavy rains and complaints poured into City Hall.
When Joe Griffin became City Manager in April, drainage was high on his to-do list.
At that time, City staff had already divided the drainage system into 25 segments and was methodically replacing the quarter round segment by segment.
However, by then, it had become apparent that the main ditches needed immediate attention.
In December, after completing the latest quarter round segment, Griffin and staff “strategically delayed” the remaining quarter round work to concentrate on clearing the big ditches.
The problem did not develop overnight, nor can it be corrected overnight, according to City officials.
“The plan,” says Griffin, “is to be ready before the 2015 rainy season.”
To that end, two new maintenance workers have been hired and new replacement backhoes have been purchased.
The “crown jewel” of the drainage system’s fleet, says Griffin, will be an impressive $361,000 VAC truck, which resembles a fire truck. It’s on order and will take several months to build, before it can replace the City’s existing 12-year-old VAC truck, which spends a lot more time in the shop than out on the job.
But staff is not waiting for the new equipment.
Crews are on the job daily, clearing ditches as fast as possible.
“We can already see a positive change,” says Griffin, who tours the drainage system weekly. “By spring, we should know where we are as far as catching up.”
At that point, a schedule will be in place for ongoing maintenance on the entire system, with a beefed up maintenance crew and new, reliable equipment.
Another key element to the success of the drainage problem was brought forward by one of the many frustrated city residents.
Robert Standell has spoken with city staff frequently over the years and says they’ve always been polite but just haven’t been able to keep up with big ditch clearing.
While he agrees that the City should certainly stay on top of system maintenance, Standell, a practical guy, also firmly believes property owners should do their part, maintaining what they can on their property, and not allowing vegetation to clog the swales and laterals.
“The next door neighbor would not dig his swale out and had let it grow in, as a matter of fact he actually completely covered the pipe under his driveway to prevent water from draining.”
“The city came out and dug it out down our street and around the corner to a main ditch on Lanfair, and everything worked great for quite a while . . . [but] the city never came back to maintain the main ditch and now, for the last two years, it’s blocked with extensive overgrowth of Florida Holly and other plants and sediment. So what happens is it will drain when the water is high enough, but only to a certain point. This results in standing water year round for my neighbor at Arch and Lanfair, so . . . his swale grows in because it’s always wet, resulting in poor drainage for the rest of us. I’ve been asking the city to clear out this main ditch for over two years, and they say; ‘It’s on the list.’”
Griffin is determined to shorten that “List,” and wants the citizens of Sebastian to know they are not going unheard or ignored.
He hopes a new, dedicated phone line (772- 581-0111) will improve city-citizen communications.
The line was set up to give residents a more direct way to voice complaints and concerns. The dedicated line eliminates red tape, bypassing the annoying recorded message system, which can tax any caller’s patience.
An actual human being will answer the line during City Hall hours of operation and fill out a form which will be passed to the appropriate department. Complaints can be tracked for follow-up.
With improved communications, more maintenance workers, better equipment and property owner cooperation, Griffin hopes that spring will bring not only baseball and new buds, but also a more efficient, less pain-in-the-ditch drainage system.