For more than 25 years, life has been soggy for several homeowners in one Athens neighborhood.

A flat landscape and copious stormwater leaves their driveways on Barbara Street — and the driveways of other people in the subdivision — looking like small fish ponds.

“The subdivision wasn’t put in right in the first place,” Athens Streets Manager Dolph Bradford told City Council members Monday. “You gotta throw some money at it.”

Taz Morell of Morell Engineering in Athens unveiled a plan Monday to abate the stormwater runoff problems for five homes on the south side of Barbara Street, just east of Lucas Ferry between West Hobbs and Washington streets.

Morell said the cause of the problem is the lack of slope to the drainage ditch, which causes water to stand in the residential area. Repairing and replacing driveway pipe and adding a concrete flume in the ditch is the remedy.

Though there are drainage problems in other areas of the neighborhood, the city would focus on these five properties.

Morell said the area has been flooding for 30 years.

Bradford, who has been in the office about six years, said his predecessor, Larry Elkins, was taking calls from residents about flooding 25 years ago.

Morell told The News Courier during a break in the council meeting, “The elevation of the land cannot be increased because there are houses built upon it. The city can increase the flow of rainwater by paving the existing drainage ditch.”

Furthermore, the old tiles — the pipes that allow stormwater to flow under the driveways — are 30-year-old corrugated metal ones. Not only are they decaying, they are filled with silt, rocks and mud that impede water flow.

Some of the pipes are also positioned higher than others, which further halts stormwater runoff. In addition, the ditches that are supposed to carry the water to the pipes are filled with grass and silt.

All of this leads to water backing up onto residents’ driveways and the fronts of their yards when it rains.

Morell proposed taking out parts of the driveways, replacing the metal pipes with concrete ones and installing concrete flumes in the now grass-covered ditches. The clean, slick concrete flumes will hopefully help the rainwater move downstream, he said.

The cost to remedy the drainage issues at the five homes is $143,000. The project does not qualify for grant money.

City officials would require homeowners to share in the cost.

Council members listened to Morell’s presentation but took no action pending discussions about the cost-sharing.

Timeline

Bradford said it would be up to the council to determine when improvements would be made.

On Monday, City Council President Chris Seibert left it up to the residents on the street to see if they wanted to share in the cost of the project. Bradford said that is not unusual.

“When a person builds a home, they pay for materials — the pipe, concrete, gravel, whatever — used, and the city installs it — pays for labor and equipment to do it,” Bradford said.

It would take the city about a week to tear out and restore a driveway, so neighbors would have to share driveways, should the council and homeowners work out the money.

District 3 Councilman Frank Travis asked why this neighborhood was selected for improvements, when other streets are as much in need.

Mayor Ronnie Marks said, “These people have been sitting here for 30 years. If they (other residents with drainage issues) bring them forward, we’ll get an engineering study. There are areas (with drainage issues) all over town. We’re asking for a grant for the Athens Elementary School area.”

Seibert said the city could decide by the end of May whether to proceed with the project, assuming the discussions on cost-sharing work out.