Rachel Campbell has lived at the west end of Carver Drive in Starkville, since 1981.
For the majority of those years, she feels her front yard has been nothing, but a source of disgust.
“Around 1986, the city took that sewage drain from the middle of the street and moved it right to the edge of my yard,” she recalled. “From stool to those sanitary pads, tampons and any waste you can think of, when it gets backed up, my yard is a sewer.”
Carver Drive is surrounded by a drainage ditch that acts as a catch area for the drainage basin of northwest Starkville. For years, it has been a hot-button issue for both residents and city officials.
Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk said the problem with the area is really two-fold, issues which have become intertwined.
“There are two issues that have gotten co-mingled in the public’s mind and maybe even in looking at the problem,” Sistrunk said. “One is the sewage problem and the other is a storm-water drainage problem. They are two completely different problems. ”
Sistrunk said the sewage problems have been addressed extensively and the Board of Aldermen has begun to look at solutions for the storm-water drainage.
“The Public Works Department thinks they have remedied the sewer problem. I have not heard any complaints about the sewer problem in the last year,” she said. “Where we are now is talking about the storm-water issue.”
Action has been taken in the past year to alleviate some of the sewage problems. In a recent annual report to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Starkville Director of Public Services Doug Delvin listed numerous projects that have taken place over the last year, including replacing sagging sewer mains and repairing storm water beaches.
Even so, some residents of Carver Drive claim they rarely see any work being done. For many, their difficulties persist.
Walter Collins has lived in the same house on Carver Drive for 26 years and every year, during the wet months, he knows exactly what to expect.
“My house has almost been flooded a couple times even in the last three or four months,” he said. “When it happens, the city comes and helps flush it out and that’s it.
“It’s something that always is on your mind when you see the forecast,” he added, of the flooding. “For us, when it rains, it means a lot more struggle than just getting wet. It feels like you are incarcerated. You can’t go anywhere.”
The sewage problem carries along with it major health concerns. Many residents will not allow their children to play outside, unless they can continuously keep an eye on them.
Rodney Miles, whose mother lives at the end of Carver Drive, feels like they are living around poison, when the sewage overflows.
“It really is hazardous to everybody. That drainage is a mess,” he said. “They claimed they fixed it last summer, but I have definitely seen it since.”
Collins said he felt like his taxes were going to improve other parts of the city.
“It’s not like we are way out in the county,” he said. “This is the city. The hospital is like two minutes away and there is school right there. You see improvement downtown and stuff like that, but we can’t get the city to take care of their residents. I feel like I am paying taxes for nothing.”
A grant application to acquire the appropriate funds was voted on at last month’s Board of Aldermen meeting, but a related motion failed. Sistrunk said she knows the issue needs to be resolved and the board will continue to consider different options.
“I think the grant application would have been premature,” she explained. “It’s a great idea and I think we should certainly consider it, but we just need to choose a solution before we ask for the money.”
Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins, who is the alderman of the ward where the ditch is located, did not respond to calls about the issue.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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