Wet & weary
1st St. East road continues to plague residents
The time will come when streets on the east side of Center St. will be addressed like so many others on the west side have been during the last few years. But there’s one area among all those rocky roads that have residents up in arms — and up to their ankles in water.
That would be 1st St. East at the intersection with East Morgan St. where water pools after rain events. The road portion south from Morgan is gravel and leads to a “T” intersection and a corn field.
Two residents along that street spoke about the issue at a recent Tracy City Council meeting.
“It’s a big, mucky mess,” said Gayle Brumfield. “It’s been awful — stagnant water the whole time. The water has not gone away this year.” Brumfield said the standing water poses health risks to the local residents and anyone who walks the street by encouraging the growth of bacteria and creating a haven for mosquitos.
“I have watched as the water accrues waste buildup, such as glass, cans, bricks, wood, needles and other sharp objects that could injure your children, or damage vehicles that drive through it,” said Brumfield. “I believe there is an easy solution to this problem; I am asking the City to bring in some gravel and grate the road enough to bring this section of the road up to the height of the rest of the road.”
Brumfield said the part of the road that collects the most water is much lower than both Morgan St. and the gravel portion of 1st St. East.
“It also floods all the way down on the right side of the street to the point where I can’t even get to my house — I have to go half-way down the block,” said another resident of the area, Samantha Melton. “A lot of people driving by throw cans and bottles in the puddle as well. There’s no drain on my side of the street, so it just backs up.”
The neighbors said in most years, the water will dry up, but not this year they have found.
“When it rains, it backs up halfway down the street,” said Melton.
Brumfield added that her lawn has increased by about 5 feet for lack of maintenance on the gravel.
Later in the meeting, City Public Works Director Shane Daniels told the council that his crew has attempted in the past to dig a trench on the west side of the road to get water to drain to the south, but over time, the trench has always gotten filled in.
“The best fix is to actually have a storm drain there,” he said. “But if we add anymore water to the storm drain, we’re not going to have a storm drain at all for four blocks because it would completely collapse. We could cut another trench, but the problem is it kind of trenches across driveways coming down the hill, so it’s not ideal for the owners.”
One option would be to install shallow tiling in the area to drain to the south, but that would lead to more water to the corn field, essentially just moving the problem, Daniels said.
“Where do you outlet it?” Daniels asked. “The bottom side of the hill is a farmer’s field — you’re moving the problem to some else’s property. It’s a low point because of the road; over time, that road has been built up and the water has nowhere to go. That spots been bothering me for years.”
The council will address the problem, but no plausible solution was brought forth at last week’s meeting. The roads in question are target areas of the planned Phase E road construction project.
