Residents in the Rixey Community in northeast Pulaski County say they all too often struggle with standing water caused by numerous issues with draining systems.
Charles Sampson, a resident of Rixey, told members of the Pulaski County Quorum Court that the community deals with standing water whenever it rains, as many of the stormwater systems in place have been clogged or stopped up.
Sampson asked justices of the peace for help with the flooding issues at the first in-person Quorum Court agenda committee meeting on June 21.
Justice of the Peace Kristina "KG" Gulley lobbied Tuesday during the full Quorum Court meeting to allocate American Rescue Plan funds to fix issues causing harm to communities in the districts.
The county will receive $76.1 million in covid-19 relief funds.
Thursday, Gulley and fellow JP Aaron Robinson, a civil engineer, met with community members to find solutions.
One major area of concern community members showed Robinson was a place where a former property owner blocked off what had been a drainage area that allowed water to flow through.
According to residents, this causes Arkansas 161 to flood to the point that people cannot leave in their vehicles and standing water gets dangerously high for their homes.
"There was demolition waste dumped into a main drainage along [Arkansas] 161," Sampson said. "[The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality] said the problem had been fixed, but they didn't. They covered the top of it."
According to Robinson, the county would need permission from the property owner to come through to fix the drainage issues.
"The county, unless the property owners agree to it, they won't go off county right of way," Robinson said.
According to Robinson, the cleaning process would not be difficult, assuming the property owner agrees to allow the county to do it.
"It may get 100 feet of cleaning it out to actually get it to flow," Robinson said. "It's not that bad back in here. It's just bad on the front end."
The current owner of the property told residents Thursday that he would be willing to sign a waiver for the county to come in and repair the ditch to allow for better runoff.
Many other parts of the drainage system, like some culverts, according to Robinson, should be cleared out by the county Road and Bridge Department.
Some culverts have been blocked off by the roadway near a Union Pacific railway after the road had been repaved. Robinson said the railroad would be responsible for repairing the area.
"It's in their right of way," Robinson said.
Gulley said the situation in Rixey, one of the areas where she would like funding used to address flooding issues, is able to be worked on by the county.
"Their situation is repairable based on what my colleague said and what the residents were saying," Gulley said. "We've just got to get with the county on a few issues, and the county is going to have to reach out to Union Pacific, is my understanding."
The drainage problems have plagued the area for a long time. When asked if the issues have been around for a decade, resident Marvin Romes said flooding has been a problem for "much longer than that" but remembers a time when there were no severe issues.
"We didn't have this problem growing up," Romes said.
According to Romes, the water would get high during rain, but it would run off and not create standing water.
"When we had those real big events, the water would come up, but it would run off," Romes said. "It's not running off [now]. It's just sitting."
Robinson advised Gulley that the funding for the issues should all come from the Road and Bridge Department's budget.
Gulley said she would be working with County Judge Barry Hyde to resolve the issues.
"It's the county's responsibility, so I do plan to get with Judge Hyde about the issues they shared on [Thursday]," Gulley said. "Whereas if the Rescue Act money is not needed for that, there are other areas in the district we could see about using rescue act for."
Hyde said he thinks there would be areas the county could improve the living standards of residents but thinks it will be on an individual project basis.
"There's going to be some areas where we have immediate needs that we can do things," Hyde said. "I don't think it's going to be by district. It's going to be countywide."
According to Hyde, he has asked JPs to bring proposals forward that they think would qualify under the American Rescue Plan funding rules.