Post-war Ortega Forest community fighting drainage issues
Ortega Forest resident Carolyn Snowden has a quarrel with the City of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Energy Authority (JEA) over a swampy right-of-way in front of her home on Homestead Road. Snowden and her family have lived in the home for 10 years, and she says, “Enough is enough.”
Many of the houses on Homestead Road, Westfield Road, Water Oak Lane, and Verona Avenue in the Westfield area of Ortega Forest were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s. An aerial view of the community clearly shows a ditch running parallel to Homestead Road about eight feet from the street.
“We have leeches – it’s disgusting – and snakes,” said Snowden.
The issue seems to be an incomplete drainage system where some driveways have the required 8-inch drain pipe running under the driveway, said Snowden. “Ours does not. JEA is supposed to fix that. I gave up fighting it years ago, and now my current neighbors, all with small kids, are wanting to fight it again.”
Tiffany Post, who lives on Verona in the same subdivision, has what she describes as “the worst problem of all. The water main is exposed in our ditch. I’ve been trying to get the City to fill in my ditch for over three years. They have shaved off roots on an oak tree to widen the other side of the ditch. Also, word is before I lived in the house, someone actually crashed their car into the huge ditch in front of my house,” she said. “And that was before it was widened and deepened. My mother is afraid to back out of my driveway for fear of driving into the ditch.”
Post first notified the City about the standing water in the ditch after she moved in four years ago. She said their solution was to dig the ditch deeper and wider, resulting in a 3- to 4-foot deep ditch nearly 6-feet wide. Her next call resulted in city workers shaving the roots of a huge live oak tree that grows beside the ditch, to make more room in the ditch. After another call, city workers brought out a high-powered hose to blow through the culvert under Post’s driveway. The last time she called about standing water, she said the same city workers told her the problem wasn’t the culvert, but that the ditch was too deep and too wide.
“JEA said their hands were tied until the water main breaks,” said Post. “And it wasn’t a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”
Post said she grew up in Ortega Forest and moved back there from Murray Hill to start a family but was very concerned last year when the Zika virus was so prevalent. She said the City will spray for mosquitoes, but “until something happens, nothing will change.”
Because it takes so long for standing water to drain after a storm, the ditch is quickly overcome by weeds. They are not allowed, by law, to spray weed killer, and she’s afraid to get in the ditch with a weed whacker because of snakes. She said she’s also afraid of neighborhood children accidentally falling into the ditch, drowning, or being bitten by a snake.
In late April, Snowden entered an issue with 630-CITY, indicating she was told by employees of the City’s Right of Way and Stormwater Maintenance Division she needed to cite medical reasons to have immediate action taken. She provided a note from her 9-year-old daughter’s physician, which stated “She has seasonal allergies and sensitive allergic skin, which are exacerbated by bug spray and mold and pollen, all of which are exacerbated by standing water. Every accommodation should be made.”
Three days later, Snowden was notified the drainage issue “is more than a maintenance issue” and that it was turned over to the Public Works Engineering Division, which is set to perform a complete drainage study for the area. “This will allow a comprehensive plan to be developed to address these issues within the neighborhood. Timeline is to be determined,” said Tia Ford, City of Jacksonville public information officer, in an email to The Resident.
While Snowden does not know if the drainage issues go back as far as six or seven decades, she said they have been ongoing since she and her family moved there in 2008. “We have a very young street, and our yard is the one they all play in because of our shady tree,” she said.
Snowden said nearby John Stockton Elementary School is why so many families buy into the area but, in addition to the drainage issue, there is another challenge to overcome.
“Our Westfield area is a great price point, but try selling your home with it being on septic – not so easy. We don’t want to sell, but it would be nice to ‘get with the times’ and get off septic,” she said, adding they have twice replaced the septic tank and also created a large mound in the backyard to combat the drainage situation.
By Kate A. Hallock
Resident Community News
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