On streets and roads
Making sure that our streets and roads are properly maintained is not the most exciting thing an Urban County Council representative does, but it is one of the most important. Being your spokesman on the safety and convenience of our roads is a responsibility that I take very seriously.
On behalf of the 5th District, I submitted a list of needed paving projects to the Public Works Department this past August. I visited with Kevin Wente from the department to get a progress report on those projects. I am pleased to see that paving in the Montavesta and Pepperhill areas is complete. Paving on Turkey Foot, parts of Romany, Hart, Cooper and Prather will begin soon. We are pushing to get as many of the priority areas completed as possible before bad weather gets in the way.
One of our real trouble areas has been the 100 block of Desha Road, where road work has been held up by the need for Columbia Gas to finish its work. It looks like that work is done and paving can begin soon.
Sewer updates
The fix is in for sanitary sewers, and in this case, that is a good thing. Plans have been drafted for sanitary sewer repairs that include needed improvements for the East Hickman, West Hickman and Wolf Run watersheds.
The city is required to submit its improvement plan by Oct. 13. It calls for infrastructure improvements that will provide a level of service capable of handling the kind of rainfall we are used to experiencing in this area. I am looking forward to the day when sewer updates are a thing of the past and all of the work is done.
The council recently adopted a two-year, 24-hour storm event standard that is part of the city's improvement plan. The No. 1 area of work will be in the West Hickman watershed, which runs from Idle Hour and the former Lexington Mall along the reservoir, including Lansdowne-Merrick, then under Tates Creek in the Malibu Drive area.
Homeowners can help alleviate sewer problems
Each year we spend money to treat - what is in essence - rain water as if it were sanitary sewer water. We all know that on dry days the sanitary sewer system doesn't overflow, but when it rains all of that changes. Rain water gets into the system through cracks in the city's pipes to some extent; but with 82 overflowing manholes, the problem is truly pump driven by pumps in many of our
basements.
Down spouts, floor drains, foundation drains and drains in outside stairwells all more often than not end up with their contents pumped into the sanitary system, and it's quite surprising that so few pumps can put such a strain on the system. Disconnecting those points of non-sanitary sewer water being pumped in will allow us to solve our EPA problem less expensively and more efficiently. We will all have to pay our share but keeping those answers as inexpensive and effective as possible is always my goal.
Tates Creek sidewalk project
The time-consuming process of acquiring easements for the Tates Creek Road sidewalk project is underway. (Eleven permanent easements and 16 temporary construction easements remain.) Project team members are working with property owners now and report good progress. Watch for updates in the future.