Sewer Connections Cause Gleneden Woes

Pete Anders shakes his head as he looks around his Gleneden neighborhood at the patched driveways, patched streets and torn up landscapes.

One by one his North Side neighbors are connecting to the county sewer system, only to discover finding their sewer stub is no simple matter.

“Nobody knows where these sewer line connections are,” said Anders.

Anders is considering connecting to the county sewer, but wonders if that means tearing up his driveway, the front lawn or tunneling under the house.

Kevin Cooke, director of county sewer planning, said trouble locating the sewer stub isn’t unusual.

He said the dry sewer lines are often laid well in advance of houses being built. The home builder might ignore the location of the stub, laying a driveway, walkway or garage over it.

It can cost a homeowner $2,000 to hire a contractor to find the sewer stub, make the connection and patch the lawn or driveway.

Many of the homeowners along Cincinnati Drive have lived in their houses almost 20 years.

Ed Woessner had his house connected to the county system last week. He said he started feeling nervous when the developer’s diagram showed his septic system in the backyard when it’s actually in the front yard.

“If you drive around the neighborhood, you see big patches on the driveways,” he said. “I felt lucky that it wasn’t under my driveway. I don’t get too worked up about the lawn. It will grow back, like a bad haircut.”

Once the connection is made, it costs another $1,000 to be hooked into the system, then a monthly fee.

Connecting to the county system isn’t required in Gleneden until 2008. Some homeowners, like Woessner, chose to connect with the county when their septics fail, instead of redoing their drainfields.

Ed Hicks has a hole in his driveway that won’t be patched until next spring.

“The biggest problem was the difference between where the county said the connection was and where it actually ended up,” said Hicks. “We had to dig up the driveway and tunnel under some large trees to make the connection.”

He’ll wait for the ground to compact under his driveway before paving next spring.

Judy Brannon said it took a year from the time they first called a contractor until the final connection was made a few weeks ago.

“It’s been ridiculous,” she said.

One of the contractors searched three days and couldn’t find the stub. Finally, after several conversations with the county, it became clear a stub just didn’t exist. The county came out and put the stub in.

Now they’re connected.

“Our front yard is gone because of the search for the stub,” said Brannon. A 12-by-24-foot section of the front yard was bulldozed.

At one point a water line was broken, flooding the front yard and leaving the family without water.

“Our neighborhood has a reputation,” said Brannon. “Contractors won’t come out unless we guarantee we know where the stubs are.”

Cooke said the county is no longer building community sewage disposal systems and it’s increasingly rare to have an on-site drainfield.

Residents in the Hastings area will be required to connect to the system next year. Camelot and College Homes residents are required to connect by 2001.

, DataTimes