Council hears of damage to private drive

Moorcroft resident Willard Gantz addressed the council at Monday’s meeting about the continued damage to his asphalt driveway, which he considers the responsibility of the town.

The street is one of the oldest in town and the curb and gutter work reflects that age with a lack of elevation to promote water flow down the gutter or any type of drain. As the material has deteriorated over the years, moisture has reached the substrate and worked its way under Gantz’s asphalt drive, he said, compromising that surface.

In May of this year, before understanding the extent of the problem, the governing body agreed to patch the damaged area within the town’s right of way to alleviate further damage. However, as Ben Glenn of Glenn Construction, Heath Turbiville of HDR Engineering and Moorcroft’s Public Works Director Cory Allison took a closer look at the area, they found that the gutter runs flat, allowing for no movement away from Gantz’s drive, making a patch useless in mitigating water damage.

Glenn advised, “I think we should probably just fix the property line to the street and leave the gutter until we come up with a full plan because I would hate to go in there and patch 50 feet of gutter and have it [still fail].”

Conversely, noted Glenn, “The only problem is that is a brand new street and we’re going to be five or six feet to catch that grade back to the curb.” He asked Turbiville to find the best option for this situation.

While Turbiville agreed that, with proper elevation added to the gutter and though the street would have to be reconstructed, the flow could be diverted into the storm drain on the state highway 14/16, but agreed to look further for a better alternative.

Adding to the problem is the cement damming the gutter and curb further along the street, deliberately set in place to build an illegal driveway entrance by another homeowner.

“That needs to be taken out of there,” Mayor Dick Claar stated. “It’s not a proper drive anyway – it’s a curb.”

Gantz voiced his rising frustration: “Nothing’s been done; even cleaning the gutter will help. Every day something isn’t done, my driveway gets worse.”

“We can clean the gutter,” Allison responded, “but it’s not going to solve the problem and we can take the cement out and it’s not going to solve the problem. It’s flat past there and we have to get a way to get it to drain.”

Gantz asked for a written agreement from the town ensuring the repair of his drive. “I don’t care if you take 20 years to do it, as long as you’re fixing my driveway when the deal’s done,” he said.

Councilman Paul Smoot told the homeowner that the town working on private property “gets a little sticky”; while the council has every intention of fixing the curb and gutter and the property within the town easement, they are limited in their ability to interfere with private property.

“That’s what I’m saying,” said Gantz, “This is the cause of it – you only want to fix to your easement, but it’s eating on my private deal now. I don’t want you to pour me a whole new driveway, but I think you should go a little past your easement and fix my driveway.”

The council explained to Gantz that they cannot work on his property, but the damage he is observing is actually still on the town’s easement, a fact of which the homeowner had not been aware.

Until the council has an effective plan from which to work, they are hesitant to spend the allocated funds on an ineffectual patch. On the other hand, Allison suggested, “Maybe the best thing to keep it from breaking down is to cut it out and put some road base or some crushed asphalt in there until we do fix it and then pour his side also. That way, we’re not breaking more out.”

Final decision on action was tabled until Turbiville reviews the situation and advises the council.