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After four backups of untreated sewage at the Deaf Service Center over two months, county officials think they've identified the source of the flooding and are planning repairs.
By WILMA NORTON
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2000
SEMINOLE -- The Deaf Service Center, struggling back to its feet after a financial crisis that nearly forced it to shut down in 1998, has been hit with another calamity: frequent flooding by untreated sewage.
Four times in two months, sewage has backed up into a vacant building on the campus of the agency's apartment complex on 83rd Street near Seminole.
During one episode, the sewage was 6 inches deep, executive director Jerry Conner said. Another time, about 1,000 gallons of the sewage ran into the adjacent Cross Bayou.
The county utilities department thinks it has found the cause of the flood and will begin work to correct the problem this week.
The recent spate of flooding isn't the first for this building. It happened a number of times in 1996 and 1997, Conner said. Several of those episodes were written off as problems from the El Nino storms.
The building flooded again last year. That time, the county found grease clogs in the lines and cleaned the system. It also paid for almost $25,000 in damage that the building received.
Since then, the county has been inspecting and cleaning the lines monthly, said Chris Staubus, assistant director of county utilities.
So when the building flooded twice in three days last month, it was obvious there was a problem other than long-term grease buildup, he said.
The county plans to install a new manhole in the next week or two to give the sewage line from the complex its own connection to the main sewer line. Staubus said the backups could be the result of sharing a connection to the main line with another, more powerful line. The entire neighborhood is scheduled for a sewer system upgrade in a year or two.
Conner said the county has been helpful and vigilant in trying to solve the problems. "They recognize the value of our agency," he said.
The Deaf Service Center is the nation's largest privately owned deaf agency, serving about 13,000 people each year.
The recent problems with sewage flooding in the building come as the agency is trying to raise about $100,000 to renovate the former restaurant and banquet hall. The center already runs 52 apartments for deaf residents at the site on the bayou. It also has some administrative offices there.
It wants to use the vacant building to consolidate the rest of its services, now on 76th Street in Pinellas Park.
The agency used to own the 76th Street building, a 13,000-square-foot former church. But two years ago, when the agency was $100,000 in debt and owed back payroll taxes, the building was sold to pay off the debt.
Since then, the agency has been renting the space for $4,000 a month.
"The sale was enough to take care of our tax issues and get us out of the hole," Conner said. "The Juvenile Welfare Board and United Way helped us upgrade our computers and our financial systems. We've been able to stay open with no reduction in service."
The 6,000-square-foot former restaurant would accommodate the agency's hearing help center, its store that sells special phones, its deaf social groups and its bingo games, which raise about $70,000 annually.
Consolidating its services at the 83rd Avenue site would save the agency between $40,000 and $45,000 a year, Conner said.
The Deaf Service Center has an annual budget of about $1.8-million.
"We're trying to renovate the building and use it," Conner said. "We can't do that if we're going to have constant sewage problems."