Council votes to clean 110 feet of ditch
KINGWOOD — The question about storm water drainage continued at the Tuesday evening meeting of the Kingwood City Council.
At a previous meeting, Bruce Wiley, a former councilman, presented a letter from former city supervisor Nelson Corbin, saying a pipe that was supposed to take water from an alley to the woods behind a house on Walsh Drive was 110 feet short when installed, so city crews covered it.
Donna Hemrick told council members most of the water coming from the pipe is going on her property.
“We’re getting drainage from everywhere,” she said.
Larry Hayes, whose property the water is also draining on, said he didn’t believe there was enough ditch to carry the water.
“A lot of water is coming down Walsh Drive,” he said.
Wiley told council there was 110 feet of ditch that has never been cleaned out. He said Kingwood has a 25-foot right-of-way to the property on which the ditch is located.
Hemrick said the deeper the ditch is dug, the more it will fill in with dirt.
“A lot of kids go up and down there. What if one of them falls into the ditch. I don’t want a big, deep ditch,” she said.
Councilman Bill Robertson said the city attorney previously sent a letter to one resident saying the city can’t clean out ditches on private property.
“I believe we should clean it, as our attorney said clean it,” Mayor Jean Guillot said.
Councilman Dick Shaffer agreed. He suggested having the city supervisor look at the ditch and see what he suggests the city should do.
After further discussion, council voted to clean all 110 feet of the ditch.
In other business:
Kingwood Chief of Police Charlie Haney told council a representative from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program offered the city new laptop computers, scanners and printers for their cars.
He said the equipment will allow officers to print tickets and do accident reports in their vehicles.
“We took one,” Haney said, “I told them we would take the printers and scanners. We have newer computers, so I said we would contact them when and if we needed the computers.” Haney said his department will also receive a $500 grant in September for overtime from a DUI and speeding grant from the same program.
Council members had a short discussion about dilapidated and empty buildings.
Guillot said he would like to talk to the owner of the empty house across from Brown’s Park.
“I would like the city to buy it and use it for parking for Brown’s Park,” he said.
It was decided to make a list of all dilapidated and empty building in the city limits. The matter will be on the next agenda.
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