Madison County Residents Say Highway Dept. Will Not Fix Flooding Issues
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MADISON COUNTY, Tenn.–Residents in a South Madison County neighborhood demand help from the highway department. They said their yards turn into safety hazards when it rains because of rushing water. Standing water sits on a property along Campbell Lane. “My poor neighbor’s yard, she has a pond that’s not a pond,” said Amanda Driver. “Even ducks have moved in on it.” Driver showed WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News cell phone video of her yard. When it rains, water flows like a rushing river. “The levee is broke and it feeds off into my neighbor’s yard, which feeds into the next neighbor’s yard, which comes into my yard,” she said. Driver said she had a special drain, but it collapsed. The Madison County Highway Department made repairs, but Driver is not satisfied. “If they would just fix the problem up the street maybe we wouldn’t have as big a problem as we’re looking at,” she said. Debris sometimes clutters drains and yards. “It’s very muddy, dirty water, typically a lot of leaves, tree branches,” said Randy Collins, a neighbor. Collins believes the water is a safety hazard. “Anytime you’ve got kids and water it’s always a safety problem,” he said. “Before we had something with a grate over it,” said Driver. “They couldn’t get in there.” Driver contacted the county highway department, commissioners, and the mayor‘s office for help. WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News contacted the county highway department multiple times Monday to try and get their side of the story. Late Monday afternoon, the county highway department engineer Bart Walls did comment and said they made several repairs on driver’s property. “The county does continue to maintain that road and monitor the drainage system on that road. and situations arise if any we try to address them as west we can,” said Walls The highway department said they cannot fix the levee on the neighbor’s land because it is on private property.
