CLARKESVILLE – The failure of a stormwater pipe that runs underneath a building on property owned by Clarkesville Baptist Church created a lot of discussion at Monday night’s Clarkesville City Council meeting.
Clarkesville Baptist Church Pastor Grady Walden told council members the church was promised a year ago by former Clarkesville Public Works Director Jeremy Garmon and Special Projects Director Tim Durham the problem would be corrected, but it persists and is worsening with the recent heavy rainfall.
“We’ve been told it’s going to be fixed – and it’s not been fixed,” Walden told city officials.
Mayor Barrie Aycock acknowledged the city is struggling with aging infrastructure that may have been installed by less than ideal methods.
“We all know that the infrastructure in the city is quite old, and that we have had some financial crises in the last few years that the maintenance that we needed to do we haven’t been able to do because of financial constraints, and also the lack of expertise on the part of very dedicated and conscientious people,” Aycock said after the meeting. “I think maybe some of these problems, some of our people maybe put off because they didn’t know how to fix them. I don’t know.”
But Aycock praised ESG, the company that has operated the city’s public works departments for the past six months.
“I do know that ESG has the resources to help us to find cost-effective ways that we can begin to solve some of these problems,” Aycock said.
Scott Murphy, project manager for ESG in Clarkesville, said the church has a valid concern, but one that requires a complex solution.
Murphy said under normal conditions a stormwater fix is relatively easy, but that’s not the case with the Clarkesville Baptist Church-owned property on Madison Street.
The affected area has angle-cut sections of concrete pipe used to make a 90-degree turn, something not widely done to handle stormwater.
“That section of pipe, we’re not even certain the city built it,” Murphy said. “This property when you actually look at it, it may have been a portion the city tied on, which makes it the city’s problem, but I don’t know that the city actually put that concrete in. Clearly, it’s ours now.”
Because the current stormwater runs underneath a building, church leaders say it’s causing failure of a wall of that structure and that the more time it takes for repair, the worse the situation is getting.
“It is a very complex repair,” Murphy said. “It is different from every other repair because I only see a stormwater or sewer infrastructure underneath a house or a business maybe once every few years.”
Still, Murphy said ESG has reviewed a half-dozen possible solutions and determined the best fix, noting work should begin soon to correct the problem.
Walden said he didn’t want to leave the meeting without the assurance that the problem would be corrected – and soon.
“I think we’ve waited long enough,” Walden said.
Murphy reassured Walden, Larry Lind of the church’s buildings and grounds committee, and other church representatives that the problems will be addressed quickly.
“Pastor, to your point we’ve got that down as the top priority,” Murphy told Walden. “We’ve been able to go through and come up with a good solution for it that takes the water off that section of that property and moves it over away from the structure.”
Aycock assured Walden and church officials that the city would work to correct the problem.
“Yes, absolutely,” Clarkesville Baptist Church is going to get some help, Aycock said after the meeting. “This is what council meetings are for. And we encourage our citizens to come … that’s what we come up here for every month. We have a public comments session, and if you’ve got a problem this is how you get it addressed.”
Murphy told the council he believes many such issues will be discovered around the city.
“We know that,” Aycock said.
“You’re dealing with the sins of the past …but we understand that you all are frustrated, and I think we’ve got the folks now who have the expertise to fix the problems and, granted, they have their hands full,” Aycock told church officials.
Aycock said cost-cutting and other shortcuts taken in infrastructure installation and repairs are catching up with the city, as evidenced by ESG’s six-month progress report heard Monday night.
“Scott has shown me some materials that were used in some of our infrastructure that were totally inappropriate, but they did the best they could with the knowledge they had,” Aycock said. “It’s a slow process, but I believe in our city manager and in her dedication to making sure that all this gets done and that the council is absolutely going to make sure that it gets done.”
