Recent storm revives old flooding complaints

BROOKSVILLE -- During heavy rains last summer, said Tom Ingle, what had been a stream of water running off the softball fields at Tom Varn Park became a torrent.

"You could fish for trout in the water flowing between here and there," said Ingle, owner of Carpet World on W Jefferson Street, as he pointed to the building next to his store, Able Body Temporary Services.

Ingle, whose business borders the northern edge of the fields, complained repeatedly about the drainage problem to the city of Brooksville, which owns the park. He also called state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

A district engineer who inspected the property in August found nine specific deficiencies and one overriding one: The city did not build the drainage area according to the plans.

"It was determined that the site was not constructed as shown on the permitted drawings," Phillip Davidson, the Swiftmud engineer, wrote in a Oct. 16 letter to the city.

Virtually all of the retention ponds were dug differently than the plans stipulated. In almost every one of these ponds, the concrete devices designed to prevent overflow had been replaced by makeshift systems using PVC pipe and walls made of stacked bags of concrete.

Also, Davidson's letter said, the district never certified a statement of completion for the project "due to deviations noted by your engineer."

The letter continued: "Your consulting engineer will be required to reanalyze the drainage system, propose the necessary modifications and submit revised plans showing the modifications for district approval."

The city had not completed that process when heavy rains fell on Sunday. City workers began moving dirt to improve the drainage. On Thursday, a district employee ordered them to stop working because they did not have the necessary permit.

"Apparently there was some construction going on but we hadn't permitted any construction," said Swiftmud spokesman Michael Molligan.

City Manager Dick Anderson said he did not know about the most recent development at the site. Public Works Director Emory Pierce, who oversaw the original construction as well as the improvements, was on vacation Friday.

Anderson did say, however, that the city has hired the engineer who drew the original plans, Alan Garman, to design a solution to the problem. He did the original work free of charge.

The city's work is not entirely to blame, Anderson said, because the area was subject to drainage problems long before the softball fields were built in 1998. The fields are west of Darby Lane and share a parking lot with the Jerome Brown Community Center, which was completed in 2000.

Anderson also said Ingle, whose store is in county jurisdiction, has long complained about this and other problems.

"I think he calls everybody every week," Anderson said.

Ingle, however, said he has good reason to complain. In the 19 years he has owned the store, he said, he never had significant problems with runoff from the city property.

But since last summer, when the area received the heaviest rain since the fields were completed, he had to pump his septic tank seven times because it was inundated with runoff, a process that costs more than $100.

He had it pumped again this week because it was flooded after Sunday's storm.

The shoddy work on the project, he said, also casts doubt on the city's ambitious plans for the future, especially the annexation of 1,600 acres to accommodate the Hampton Ridge development.

"They want to add on all that land south of town. They say, don't worry, we can handle the utilities, when they can't even handle a ball field," he said.

The retention ponds on the property, most of which were partially filled with muddy water, are littered with dead trees, tree stumps and old bottles.

Trash has been stuffed into some of the makeshift drainage structure.

The asphalt surface of the walking trail has crumbled in several areas.

Pipes, some old, some new and apparently awaiting installation, have been strewn around the entire property.

A berm has been been built to protect flooding of the land owned by a church west of the park.

The lawn and parking lot of Norbourne Estates apartment complex just to the south of the park, also was flooded with runoff last summer, said the property manager, Annette Simmons.

But she is satisfied the city is trying to take care of it.

That is true, Garman said. He also said the drainage problems have not all been caused by poor construction.

The property was altered by the construction of the community center and the installation of concrete basketball courts next to them. And he agreed with Anderson that this area of the city has long been prone to flooding.

But he also acknowledged problems with the site.

"It hasn't been maintained at all," he said.

Also, he said, the city skimped on construction because the funding for the softball project, which came from a state grant, was not adequate to do the work.

"Most of this was cost-cutting measures. They had a grant to do this stuff and they tried to do it cheap."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright