Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville Street, Drainage and Lights Committee heard from Sain Associates Wednesday afternoon regarding their thoughts on the current traffic calming policies that are in place by the City of Prattville. The agenda also covered a potential fix for the flooding that has plagued the Bent Tree Court Area in Prattville as well as a street lighting review.
The President and CEO of Sain Associates, Jim Meads, and Project Manager Charles Cochran, both highlighted their findings that the committee has been presented. Sain Associates also stated they highly suggest updating the current policies in place to better fit the needs of Prattville going forward.
“We’ve already collected data on a lot of sites and began to look at some studies, but we really need policy in place to make sure everything that we do for all the sites or segments that we look at conforms to that,” Meads said.
Cochran confirmed that the current policy only has three calming measures, including street narrowing, speed bumps and surface roughing.
“We’ve added that to 14 options now for traffic calming measures. It’s a combination of that scoring system and the engineering department’s judgment on what can be used out there,” Cochran said.
Both Cochran and Meads confirmed that there is no change in how to submit changes or issues to the engineering department, and the forms and the process are still the same.
The Bent Tree Court area in Prattville have been battling flooding and standing water in their backyards for several years now, and Prattville’s engineering department might have a solution.
This issue is nothing new and has been happening for the last five years, Bent Tree Court residents stated in a previous article with Elmore Autauga News. There’s standing water from an easement that runs through the back yards of about six to 10 houses, and an underground spring seems to be the culprit. However, neighbors say the issue did not appear until about five years ago.
The standing water has led to foundation problems for multiple homes in the cul-de-sac, an influx of thousands of mosquitos and frogs in backyards, snakes and other wildlife, residents confirmed.
This issue has made it to the agenda after legislators, a state representative, local elected officials, Prattville city staff and director of Alabama Department of Economics and Community Affairs (ADECA), met to look over the issue last June.
City Engineers Robby Anderson and Paxton Reiss have compiled a proposal with public works to hopefully create a solution. Since the easement is on private property, Anderson stated they would need to grant a temporary easement from the Prattville resident. This would give the city access to the issues.
This resident has what looks to be an underground spring and what Anderson referred to as a standpipe in her backyard, adding to the massive amounts of waterflow.
“We’re seeking a temporary approval to get a simple temporary easement from her, to go in and use a wastewater’s truck and then maybe some pumps to try to pump that water out to see if that can relieve it. Right now it’s backing up and flowing onto the ground,” Anderson said.
Anderson confirmed that it is a 90-day proposal that has been drafted by city attorney Andrew Odom and has been seen by the resident. Signatures could be as soon as next week. Anderson also confirmed that the Bent Tree Court Area had a French drain installed the back yards by the developer, and the similar method used years prior was also in place around the same area and saw success.
“I know a method very similar to what I used about 10 years ago. It dried up but it didn’t totally solve the situation. It got the system as well working again and worked for a good number of years so that will be the proposal now. To try to go in, vacuum out their lines again, see if the existing French drain system will continue to function,” Anderson said.
Prattville has long lived up to the name Fountain City, and now after years of back and forth with the city and residents, answers seem to be on the horizon.
