Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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November 12, 2009

Residents express frustration over recurring water woes

By GREG JORDAN

PRINCETON – Residents living around the Stafford Drive area continue dealing with high water and drainage problems while the City of Princeton’s latest application for grant funding to address flooding problems has been turned down.

Whenever substantial rainfall occurs over the city, portions of Stafford Drive — especially at the Bee Street and Trent Street intersections — tend to flood to the point where the road has to be temporarily closed. The flooding also touches residential areas around Stafford Drive.

“It’s not so much in my yard, it’s in my basement,” said Lois Snider of Princeton Avenue. “My pump runs all the time. It doesn’t rain for a week and it still runs. Water runs through our houses and they won’t do anything about it. They could do a little bit. They (other streets) all have storm drains. I don’t see why when we’re in the city limits we can’t have drainage.”

One of Snider’s neighbors, Peggy Miller of Princeton Avenue, said she experiences flooding when rain arrives.

“We had a back yard full of it (water,)” Miller said. “It’s just really aggravating.”

Another resident, John G. Mathena of the 300 block of Bluefield Avenue, said his street had only one culvert.

“You can walk down the side of my house....it’s muddy, it’s torn up the sidewalks and everything,” he said.

City Manager Wayne Shumate said Thursday that the city’s latest application for a state Small Cities Block Grant had been turned down. The city has been seeking approximately $500,000 to create larger drains for the Stafford Drive area. Water now has to take several turns before it reaches Brush Creek. One possible solution is to install a three-foot-wide drainage pipe in the vicinity of Brick Street. Stafford Drive is a state highway.

The city’s public works department has cleaned out drainage ditches as well as piping in the Stafford Drive area this past summer, Shumate said.

“The real issue is having the capacity to drain the water off, and as it currently stands, the system doesn’t have the capacity to do that,” he said. The city is still seeking funding.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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