Despite the excessive water levels from recent torrential rainfalls across the area, improper landforming is the likely culprit when it comes to flooding issues on some county roads, officials say.
On Monday, Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ President Glenn Donald told Becky Oswalt, a District 5 homeowner, that farmers and landowners who are not following the proper procedures when they are leveling and shaping their land, caused the ditches in her area to overflow and run out into the roadways.
Oswalt lives on Bruckner-Kiker Road and came before the county’s decision-makers and road managers to complain about the holes in her road and explain that when it rains she is unable to travel her road.
“The fields are draining into the ditches and the ditches are not big enough to accommodate all of the water and it is flooding the road,” Oswalt said.
She said the flooding prevents her from going to work.
“If I can’t go to work, I can’t pay my bills,” she said.
Supervisor Gloria Dickerson asked what could be done to help, and Donald replied that landowners who fail to acquire the necessary permits should be sent a notice and in certain instances, the owners’ drain should be blocked until the problem is corrected.
The supervisors also mentioned levying fines until the owners comply and Oswalt was in agreement with that. Donald said that if the people who own the land would contact the county engineer and get a permit before they start landforming, then the county road managers could tell them how deep to dig the ditch.
He explained that some areas will not accommodate deep trenches and when that is the case, the landowner may have to reroute and form a tail recovery ditch on their property.
Bruckner-Kiker Road runs into the Drew-Merigold Road, and according to Oswalt, there are no ditches along over a half mile of that road coming from Merigold, and all of the water from there runs down her road, which causes more flooding.
Donald asked road manager Todd Rickles why there were no ditches on the road, and Rickles said there are ditches there but likely are too small to accommodate a flash flood.
Oswalt said that it doesn’t take a flash flood for water to overtake her road.
“We get very little rain and my road floods,” she said.
She maintained that the county road crews only cleaned out the ditch on one side of the road, but it is necessary to clean both sides to assist with flood prevention.
She said there are 10 houses on a small stretch of her road, and when it rains, no one can get out unless they have a truck.
“I have a car, and if it floods and I can’t go to work, I have a problem. I just want my road fixed,” Oswalt said.
Donald said another issue is that some farmers run their crops out to the road. They fill the ditches with dirt and their crops come out to the roads. He said that’s the real problem.
“You can ride with your hand out of the window and rub corn,” Donald said.
Oswalt asked what could be done about that situation. She said the farmers act as if they own the roads.
Supervisor Dennis Holmes suggested digging a trench deep enough so that they cannot drive across because some of the farmers are also turning their machines around in the middle of the county’s roads and tearing up surfaces.
Donald told the board that there are homeowners in his district that are unable to mow their grass in the summer because a landowners’ field floods their property.
Oswalt told the supervisors, “if they would asphalt my road and clean the ditches, you wouldn’t hear from me again.”
She added that it was only a about a mile. County Engineer Ron Cassada chimed in, saying that to asphalt a mile of road would cost about $500,000 unless they DBST it and that would only cost about $50,000
Cassada said he would recommend fixing the drainage and adding a good load of gravel and grade it.
As a future measure, Donald told the road managers that they need to make sure that the assistant road managers are riding the roads and discovering these type issues before a citizen has to come before the board with a complaint.
Oswalt told the board that whenever she calls her road manager, he informs her of how some other road is in worse condition.
“I don’t care about them other roads,” she said. “I don’t travel them roads, if them people have a problem with their roads then they need to be where I am right now.”
Supervisor Riley Rice said he has problems with some of the ditches in his area as well.
