WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Valerie Kile has had enough. She has seen flooded streets at every turn while trying to leave her neighborhood.
“I’m a very patient person. I’ve listened to the chatter go back and forth between neighbors for a number of years now. But Friday I reached my limit,” she said.
It's something she and others have dealt with in the area for years.
“I don’t know if I’m going to hit something that’s hidden in the waters,” Kile said.
Long ago, the Pasco Heights Road and Bridge district built the streets in the Fox Ridge community. But earlier this decade, residents accused the overseeing board of corruption.
“Money disappeared about of that district,” she said.
So the county took over in 2011 -- taxing homeowners with a yearly assessment to pay for maintenance.
Now people here say the drainage problems are still bad, and the roads are still a mess.
Pasco County officials say they have been making improvements for the last two years and that projects to resurface the roads and fix drainage are “in the works”
Officials added that the project will not prevent all flooding.
But Valerie Is still fed up and says she sees no evidence of things getting better.
“I haven’t seen any work done in over six months by the county,” she said.
The Pasco County Government released the following statement:
Public Works has been conducting several stormwater drainage improvements in the Fox Ridge subdivision since October, 2016. Between October, 2016 and April, 2018, crews cleared and/or regraded a number of drainage swales to improve stormwater conveyance – mainly along Haystack Road, Redcoat Drive and Steeplechase Road. Crews also inspected and repaired a number of drainage culvert pipes and inlets between April, 2017 and May, 2018 along Cantor Drive, Fox Ridge Boulevard and Redcoat Drive. A major Municipal Service Benefit Unit (MSBU) project to reconstruct and resurface roads, as well as to improve road-related drainage in the neighborhood, is in the works.
An engineering firm (Florida Design Consultants [FDC]) has been contracted to evaluate the roads and road-related drainage to develop a project plan for implementation. The engineering report is being finalized and will be provided to Public Works shortly. A meeting will be scheduled with Fox Ridge residents sometime inAugust, 2018 to discuss the engineering findings and the proposed project before beginning construction.
It should be noted that the road-related drainage improvements would help abate some of the flooding issues, but not prevent all flooding. Pasco County is partnering with the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) to evaluate overall drainage in the Fox Ridge subdivision to developlong term solutions. Any project coming out of the evaluation would have to be designed and permitted before construction takes place.
