Lamar citizens talk flooding problems
Lamar Town Council members (left to right) Jackie Thomas, Angele White-Bradley, Willie Howell, Mike Lloyd, town clerk/treasurer Sherrill Dorriety, and Mayor Randy Reynolds heard multiple citizen complaints about flooding. Photo by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Lamar Town Council met November 14 for their regular monthly meeting and heard from citizens about flooding problems and slow drainage all across town.
“I want to talk about the drainage system on Warren Avenue where I live. It’s gotten to a critical point where it’s costing us money in damages,” said Kempson.
Kempson said that drainage has become so poor over the last few years that during heavy rainfall, his yard regularly amasses a foot of water before the street even partially floods. The water has flooded out a storage barn and ruined costly medical equipment, and the repeated flooding beneath his home has damaged structural joists and caused the floor to dip in numerous places. He noted that the drainage problem seems to be getting worse because his yard floods nearly every time there is substantial rainfall.
“I’ve lived there 54 years, and for the first 52 years of my life I can count on one hand the big floods we’ve had back there. I can’t even count on one hand the big floods we’ve had this year,” said Kempson.
Other residents told similar tales: when a heavy rain occurs, they regularly experience standing water in their yards that drains away very slowly, water pools under their homes and in their driveways, and the ditches around their homes don’t seem be helping.
Mayor Randy Reynolds said that as much as he wishes the Town of Lamar had the resources to dig out blocked ditches and clean clogged drainage pipes, the town has only one full time employee and one part-timer to handle all these troubles, and the town lacks the necessary heavy equipment (like a track hoe) to clear away large blockages.
Reynolds said he believed that many of these poor-draining ditches could perform better if they were open instead of closed, and several residents agreed that they would rather smell a little foul odor from an open ditch than deal with the damaging effects of standing stormwater.
Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Thomas added that many of the streets experiencing problems are county roads or state roads, and getting those entities to respond to entreaties for help can be frustrating. Reynolds said that he and Thomas would take note of all complaints lodged by Lamar residents and make calls to SCDOT and Darlington County Roads and Bridges alerting them to these problems.
Thomas said he has walked some of the town’s problem ditches – like the one along Duke Street – multiple times, and was willing to work with citizens to try and locate the source of their drainage troubles.
In other matters, council member Mike Lloyd said the town is steadily tracking down and eliminating costly water leaks around town. Since its water system was shut down by DHEC in the spring, Lamar buys all of its water from the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority. Because every leak bleeds a little more money from the town’s coffers, Lloyd and the water department crew have been working diligently to find and fix these problems.
“We’ve located and repaired some major leaks,” said Lloyd, noting that in this past month’s billing cycle, Lamar had lowered its water usage by over 700,000 gallons. He said he expects next month’s billing to decrease by another 300,000 gallons, which would clear up two-thirds of the 1.5 million gallons the town had been losing to various system breaches.