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Drainage issues on Oak Hill

SILVER CREEK — Susan and Jeffrey Briggs told the Silver Creek Village Board during a recent meeting that they’re being blamed for a problem they have no part in instigating.

As a matter of fact, they said, they’re as much the victim as everyone else on Oak Hill.

The problem?

Insufficient drainage, such that during rain storms, water overflows the yards of residents along Oak Street. The Briggs own two properties in the area, one is their home, the other the old Seegert’s Dairy. It’s the latter property that has generated complaints, despite being nearly halfway down the hill. The Briggs say the complaint came from a neighbor who informed Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Singleton.

Consequently, Singleton gave notice to the Briggs to fix the problem, a problem they say cannot be solved without cooperation from the community.

“It’s not our problem alone,” Sue Briggs told the board. “Water runs downhill. It’s everybody’s problem.”

Jeff Briggs elaborated, saying that the drainage issue is decades old, and that the runoff starts at the top of the hill.

“The problem has been ongoing ever since we’ve lived there and that’s been 40 years,” said Mr. Briggs. “It’s not a new problem, it’s not a problem that we’ve caused.”

Briggs explained that they had put in 100 tons of gravel in hopes of mitigating runoff, but the issue persisted.

“We still have ruts at the base of our driveway, as does everyone else from Central Avenue to Buffalo Street,” Briggs said. “We don’t know what we can do now to address the problem. We’re landlocked and we can’t drain into our own land. We need to get permission to go into somebody’s land for easement.”

Easier said than done, as the family who could presumably give permission to the Briggs for easement, is the same family who has issued the complaint.

“We have asked to use their property and they have denied us,” said Briggs. “We don’t know what we can do. We’ve been told we’re breaking the law and we’re here to let you know we have no intentions of doing so. We need to know how to fix it.”

After some back-and-forth between the Briggs’, Mayor Jeff Hornburg and the trustees, it was agreed that David Voigt, the sewer and water superintendent, would be contacted for advice.

One possible solution would be to add a drainage line to connect to the large line on Buffalo Street.

“David Voigt, the water Superintendent, is out of town right now, but when he gets back, we’ll get together as a group and discuss it and I’ll get back to you and see what we can possibly do about it,” Hornburg concluded.

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