Residents near 13th and 83rd streets expressed drainage issue concerns Monday during the Muskogee County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The issues pertain to a planned 33 unit housing development to be constructed by BK Custom Homes LLC.
Bobby Kemp, of BK Custom Homes LLC, said he has been in contact with the county to alleviate the concerns of residents.
“We’ve had that engineered out,” Kemp said. “The county’s plan is to dig a ditch out of my property in front of the neighbor to the north to the cross drain. Then the cross drain would take that and run it into everyone else’s ditches.”
Robert Francis is the neighbor to whom Kemp referred, and he said he feels the ditch won’t be sufficient to rid his property of the runoff.
“The property because of the drainage on the front, or lack thereof, there’s concrete that got dropped there years ago by the Department of Transportation,” Francis said. “Because of that, there’s never been drainage on my piece of property, and it’s never been an issue because it’s drained slowly, but it’s always drained off. I think this conversation should have been had a year ago. It’s my understanding the state of Oklahoma has no laws that give the county the power to go in and put a stop to this if there’s something that’s not right about it.”
Doke told Francis he thinks some things in state statutes protect the current residents.
“I think in this particular case, the developer’s trying to push us to open up the ditch to facilitate that water going off and over to everyone else,” Doke said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people in this room already, and I just want you to know we’ve heard you and we’re concerned about the same thing you’re concerned about.”
Jamie Hill has property on both sides of 83rd Street.
“That road down there used to be impassable,” Hill said. “You were a hostage at a certain point. Thanks to a lot of effort and expense to the county, it’s manageable now. While it’s not flowing perfect, it’s flowing passable.”