Crothersville works on drainage issue near building

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CROTHERSVILLE

A temporary solution to fix a drainage issue near a Crothersville building is in place.

Once warmer weather arrives, a permanent fix can be made.

The town paid All-Star Paving of Seymour $2,582 to take out part of a dock ramp and clear the rest of the area to allow water to flow near the former Versatech building — owned by Grover Stacey — at 400 W. Howard St.

Then the town’s street department placed a 4-inch drainage pipe and topped it off with gravel as a temporary fix.

“This is temporary until it warms up and we get some asphalt to put over that drain,” Street Superintendent Mike Deaton told the Crothersville Town Council during a recent meeting.

“Now, it reaches all the way down the gutter. Now, it has a way to escape in that drain,” he said. “This coming summer, we’re going to put more pipe in and get it all blacktopped, that way, there’s a drain all the way through that. That’s our idea anyway. As of right now, they can get their semis into the loading dock, which was Grover’s main concern.”

The work the street department performed is on the town’s right of way.

After the gravel was placed and settled, it was reported that semitrailer drivers were having a hard time accessing the loading dock. Deaton said the angle didn’t change.

“We can keep adding (gravel) to it to accommodate them, but until it gets warm enough to lay the asphalt, it’s not really going to do any good,” he said.

Councilman Bob Lyttle said he doesn’t understand why there’s an issue.

“If you told me a truck driver can’t get backed up in that dock, I’ll show you one can’t drive, bottom line,” he said.

Council President Danieta Foster said the only difference now is the gravel is 1 inch higher than the pavement on Stacey’s property.

“If that stops a truck, somebody better learn how to drive. I’m sorry,” Lyttle said. “I think we need to check with an engineer and make sure we get a big enough pipe in there and go that route and forget it, but it’s going to have the same angle. I don’t care rock or blacktop, you can’t run that ramp way out in the road. If Grover would come back and grind some of his off and bring it down to meet ours, that would be the answer.”

At that point in the discussion, Stacey walked into the meeting room at the town hall.

He said there wasn’t a drainage issue until the town repaved the street.

“The problem was when it was relaid, they got the paver on the right side of the road down real low, and whoever was running it brought it up too quick and left a hump,” he said. “Then when they went back down, they had a hump that held the water back.”

Town attorney Jeff Lorenzo had sent two letters to Stacey about fixing the drainage issue. No response was received the first time, and then he showed up at the recent council meeting.

“I think in the future, we need to communicate on this. This is a bad situation all the way through,” Stacey said. “Somebody should have just called me and said, ‘You need to come to the meeting’ or meet with us over there and we would have discussed it. I think it would have been worked out.”

Councilman Chad Wilson then told Stacey about the letters that were sent. Stacey said one letter he got from Lorenzo stated the town was going to fix the issue if he didn’t.

“It really made me mad that I didn’t have anything to do with the problem,” Stacey said. “I’m just saying we need to communicate better.”

Stacey said he was fine with the temporary fix until the permanent one can be made. He also wanted similar work done near another loading dock.

“We can take care of that other dock,” Deaton said. “We’ve got the pipe. We ordered a little bit extra to take care of that. As soon as we get time and get a decent day, we’ll knock it out.”

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