Members of First Unity United Methodist Church, located on Coleman Street, came before the board Tuesday night about the flooding that has taken place over the past few years and conditions have gotten worse. And now, it’s to the point where flooding could cause caskets to be unearthed.
The church wrote a letter and sent pictures of the flooding. It maintains the position that overtime, the flooding has gotten worse and now it’s causing a problem with one of the church’s cemeteries, located across the street.
The church is hoping for some reprieve from the situation because it’s causing problems to the property, located at 68 Coleman Road, the letter details the erosion that’s taking place and the soil content being damaged with the flooding.
“This past year and this year, the Good Lord has blessed us with more rain than we’ve seen and it’s causing problems,” Beard said, also adding the town had limited resources and could only do what it could do.
Mayor Glen Beard, Sr. said he’s sent Public Works Director Barry Joe … and worker Richard Cartlidge to assess the situation.
“It is a problem; I’m not saying it’s not. We’ve went over and dug out the ditches. We know that it is an issue and we’re doing the best we can,” Beard said.
He said when all of the trailer homes, located at the end of Martin L. King Drive were placed in, they pushed the dirt to the ditch. And overtime,
Beard said there were a few projects ahead of the issue – one that was causing an issue with the sewer.
“Well with the issue with the graves, don’t you think that should be an emergency?” Alderwoman Javette Pratt asked.
“Yes, but we also have to deal with the issue of the sewer, and we got to have the sewer,” Beard said.
The church’s Trustee Chairman Larry Edwards said the church has been dealing with the issue for quite some time.
“We’ve been dealing with this for five years and each year it keeps getting worser and worser [said in context]. Now, I counted four curbings [said in context] and all of them backed up,” he said.
“This was a problem before I got here,” Beard said, which Edward acknowledged during the conversation that the church has been dealing with it for years.
Edwards said that he’s been in contact with Supervisor John Shumaker and Shumaker said he would be willing to help Weir alleviate the problem.
“They waiting on y’all to do something,” Edwards said.
Beard reiterated that it was a problem, but the church had to be patient and bear with them while they tackled other issues.
“But, we’re going to fix the problem.”
