Is it just me, or have we somehow gotten away from customer service over the years?
Since it's been dryer than a popcorn phoot in Texas this year, I had contacted the county several times during the summer asking them to come clean out the ditch along our road. Each time I was told we will have someone look at it. I never saw anyone, and of course the ditch was never cleaned out. They do come out a few times a year and mow the right of way and the ditch, and this year the grass and weeds have been exceptionally bad due to the irrigation water being used. We use flood irrigation here, and the dams sometime break (usually on purpose even though they aren't supposed to do that) which dumps a lot of top soil and silt into the ditches.
A few weeks ago they mowed again, so I called again explaining now is the time to look at the build up since it can be seen easily with the high weeds gone. Same answer, we will get someone out to look at it. As luck would have it, a few days later one of the fields up the road was irrigated and the dam broke. The ditch filled with water and as usual had trouble flowing uphill. So I snapped a few pictures of the standing water. Later that week I needed to run into town, so I printed out the pictures and took them along. I figured if I had time, I would drop them off at the country maintenance building and hopefully they would see that there is a problem. I did indeed drop them off, and the guy was real nice about it and said he would show it to the supervisor and someone would be in contact with him. I figured, yea whatever.
Several hours later I arrived back home and discovered a county pickup truck out front, it was the supervisor. He tells me thank you for the pictures and we chat for a while about what needs to be done to get the water to run downhill once again and what has caused the problem. He tells me that he will have someone begin working on it within 2 weeks, and gives me his card and tells me if I need anything to call him.
The next day they were out here surveying, spent almost the whole week laying out almost a mile of ditch. The only underground utilities here is the phone line, and they even had them come out and mark the lines. Monday they said they will begin digging and grading.
Simply amazing how the phone calls seemed to be ignored, but once showing up in person just how quickly the ball began rolling. And I wasn't a Dave while I was there either! I think I have learned a valuable lesson here!
The first 2 pictures show the 24 inch drain pipe outlet. The water is supposed to come out of this pipe, but since it's uphill getting to this point it runs back to the other side of the road.
.
.
This picture shows the water backed up. The water should be flowing toward where I am standing when I took the picture.
And this is facing the opposite direction. This should be full of flowing water going downhill but as you can see it's pretty dry.
.
And the next 2 pictures show the ditch in front of our house (I keep it mowed with a push mower). This side is at least a foot higher than the other side of the road, but since the ditch is full of silt it backs up and fills our side.
.
Since it's been dryer than a popcorn phoot in Texas this year, I had contacted the county several times during the summer asking them to come clean out the ditch along our road. Each time I was told we will have someone look at it. I never saw anyone, and of course the ditch was never cleaned out. They do come out a few times a year and mow the right of way and the ditch, and this year the grass and weeds have been exceptionally bad due to the irrigation water being used. We use flood irrigation here, and the dams sometime break (usually on purpose even though they aren't supposed to do that) which dumps a lot of top soil and silt into the ditches.
A few weeks ago they mowed again, so I called again explaining now is the time to look at the build up since it can be seen easily with the high weeds gone. Same answer, we will get someone out to look at it. As luck would have it, a few days later one of the fields up the road was irrigated and the dam broke. The ditch filled with water and as usual had trouble flowing uphill. So I snapped a few pictures of the standing water. Later that week I needed to run into town, so I printed out the pictures and took them along. I figured if I had time, I would drop them off at the country maintenance building and hopefully they would see that there is a problem. I did indeed drop them off, and the guy was real nice about it and said he would show it to the supervisor and someone would be in contact with him. I figured, yea whatever.
Several hours later I arrived back home and discovered a county pickup truck out front, it was the supervisor. He tells me thank you for the pictures and we chat for a while about what needs to be done to get the water to run downhill once again and what has caused the problem. He tells me that he will have someone begin working on it within 2 weeks, and gives me his card and tells me if I need anything to call him.
The next day they were out here surveying, spent almost the whole week laying out almost a mile of ditch. The only underground utilities here is the phone line, and they even had them come out and mark the lines. Monday they said they will begin digging and grading.
Simply amazing how the phone calls seemed to be ignored, but once showing up in person just how quickly the ball began rolling. And I wasn't a Dave while I was there either! I think I have learned a valuable lesson here!
The first 2 pictures show the 24 inch drain pipe outlet. The water is supposed to come out of this pipe, but since it's uphill getting to this point it runs back to the other side of the road.
.
This picture shows the water backed up. The water should be flowing toward where I am standing when I took the picture.
And this is facing the opposite direction. This should be full of flowing water going downhill but as you can see it's pretty dry.
.
And the next 2 pictures show the ditch in front of our house (I keep it mowed with a push mower). This side is at least a foot higher than the other side of the road, but since the ditch is full of silt it backs up and fills our side.
.
