Town fixes drainage issue

Glenn Construction was hired by the town council to correct the drainage issue in the alley between Dewey’s Place on Big Horn and the fire station on Cheyenne Avenues last Saturday. According to Moorcroft Mayor Dick Claar, a homeowner on the south end of that roadway was concerned that the fall and spring rains will bring flooding into his property.

The cost of the repair and the pouring of the concrete will be less than $2000, said Claar. The town was charged for the materials directly and Glenn is charging only for labor, which will alleviate a percentage of the cost of the job.

The drainage was supposed to be put back into working order a few years ago, according to Public Works Director Cory Allison, as part of an infrastructure project at the time, but was stopped by then-Mayor Steve Sproul, “So now, we’re just trying to fix that.”

Town maintenance had installed a dirt burm in an effort to conduct the water away from the surrounding lowland properties at the time with diminishing success. With rising complaints from the business owners who lost space to the burm, the governing body chose to deal with the situation before winter. “This controls that water and diverts it down and out so it doesn’t flood that shop,” says Allison.

The mayor said that this alley along with the alley west of town hall and the post office were to be concreted at that time, “but got shut down [and] didn’t happen.” The town will not be pouring concrete along the alley north of Converse.

“[It] does need to be done, but right now, I’d like to have the council look at taking care of those bad spots on Big Horn Avenue like we’re doing on Campbell,” says Claar.

Big Horn Avenue has a couple of areas similar to Campbell Street, which is being patched with concrete from the alley between Powder River and Cheyenne Avenues east to the end of the block, ridding that area of asphalt that was damaged by time and weather.

With that said, though, he acknowledged that the town is “winding down” on the money available from the third cent specific tax from which the cost of this independent road work is being taken, so he and his council are being ever more cautious of work they can hold at bay for the present time.