When Little Orchid Island resident John Webster first called me last month, he didn’t much believe our conversation would do any good.
Why would he?
He already had taken his complaint to the county offices, where an engineering inspector supervisor told him, “I know all about it and it’s a problem, but I don’t have an answer. There’s nothing I can do.”
And, in fact, there might not be anything the county can do – nothing short of installing a sewage system that would be costly and take years to complete.
Webster, though, had grown weary after more than a year of seeing picturesque Cathedral Oaks Drive, where he has owned a home since 1978, covered by large puddles and occasionally flooding created by the run-off from a new home built two lots to the south.
He was frustrated by the damage the standing water has done to the soaked and softened road. So he picked up his phone, if only to have someone listen.
“I know it’s a tough problem, and there might not be a solution,” Webster said of the soggy mess along the tree-lined, tenth-of-a-mile-long, 10-foot-wide street off Live Oak Drive, not far from the Environmental Learning Center on Wabasso Island. “I don’t know if there’s anything they can do that will make everybody happy.”
As Webster explained, there have always been drainage issues along Cathedral Oaks Drive, where homes on the west side of the street back up to the Indian River Lagoon and residents rely on wells and septic systems, but drainage didn’t become a problem until last year.
That’s when his neighbor, Kathryn Brown, a seasonal resident who lives two lots to the south of Webster, knocked down the small house she owned and built a larger one – construction that required changing the elevation of the property to meet the county Health Department’s well and septic standards.
Webster estimated that roughly 4 feet of fill was brought in, and he said the raised elevation has turned a minor drainage issue into a significant run-off problem. Webster’s neighbor, Sheila Clancy, shares his concerns.
“This road has never been done right, probably because it’s such a small road with so little traffic, but the water just sits there and the road is in pretty bad shape,” Clancy said.
That’s no exaggeration.
I’ve been out to Cathedral Oaks Drive twice in the past couple of weeks. The problem is real.
And that’s exactly what I told Rich Szpryka, the county’s assistant public works director, who responded immediately.
Not only did Szpryka drive up to Cathedral Oaks Drive to examine the problem – he went there twice, once meeting on the street with the residents before meeting them again in his office last week – but he also did something that surprised Webster.
He showed that he cared.
“Frankly, I never expected to get this type of response from anyone in government,” Webster said, adding that Szpryka told him a county building ordinance prohibits the drainage of water from one property onto another. “He might not be able to fix it, but at least he’s trying. I honestly believe he’ll do the best he can.”
With a very tough situation.
“I’ve got to figure out a solution,” Szpryka said. “There’s not going to be an easy one. There might not be one at all. I’ll do whatever I can, but there might be nothing I can do. And I told them that.”
Webster and Clancy aren’t expecting a miracle. They said they’re impressed with Szpryka’s concern and efforts. They said they hope he can come up with a solution but understand that, if one comes at all, it won’t be quickly.
“But it’s nice to know,” said Webster, “that somebody cared enough to listen.”