Downtown drainage woes eyed

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter

Published: October 9, 2008

Even a light rain often leaves the walk in front of Miss Pattie’s House antique store full of water.

The 70-year-old sidewalk at 203 S. Main St. in downtown Madison includes only a small water drain, which is regularly covered by fallen leaves or other debris, according to the store’s owner. Water frequently collects in front of his store, sometimes flooding his basement, he said.

Local officials have already agreed that fixing this section of Main Street should be a “priority” as the Greater Madison Main Street committee plans additional streetscapes improvements. Unfortunately, officials recently received word that a $350,000 federal enhancement grant the committee was awarded cannot be used to resolve “drainage issues,” such as the problem in front of Miss Pattie’s House.

“The bad news is that the work needed to resolve all of the drainage issues near Miss Pattie’s House is not reimbursable,” County Administrator Lisa Kelley told the Main Street committee at its Oct. 6 meeting.

Town council members previously voted to use the money to replace the sidewalks, curbs and gutters along Main Street from the Madison Department of Social Services building at 101 S. Main St. toward the southern end of town.

Kelley had told the board of supervisors that the upcoming project’s “most difficult problem” would be fixing the drainage issues in front of the Main Street antique store. She had said that an engineer may be needed to come up with a “design solution” to repair the sidewalk.

However, Virginia Department of Transportation Residency Administrator Don Gore said that it’s unclear what is causing excess water near the antique store.
“There may just be dirt and stuff underneath the sidewalk there,” he said, adding that he hopes to get permission from the property owner to remove the sidewalk grate to get a better idea of the existing problem.

If the committee decides to pursue improving drainage there, “the town would need to chip in whatever dollars [needed] on top of what’s funded,” Kelley told The Eagle.

In order to receive the $350,000 grant, the county and the town were required to provide an approximately 25 percent local match. The Madison County Board of Supervisors has included $20,000 in its 2008-2009 fiscal year budget for this and the town council has set aside $45,000 toward the project in its current budget. Leftover money from two previous grants will cover the rest of the required match funding.

At the meeting earlier this week, Committee Chairman Bill Gentry said that this drainage problem poses troubles for the store’s owner and a safety hazard for the public using the sidewalk there.

“We need to find a way to have that resolved there irregardless if its grant money or whatever because if we don’t, the problem will still be there,” Gentry said.
“I feel confident that we will find a way to get that done,” he said.

Another Main Street spot facing drainage issues is Madison Motorcar Company at 211 S. Main St., which includes a wide entrance, according to Kelley. Workers could improve drainage there by improving the curb and creating more “defined” entrances, which would be actions covered by grant money, she said.

A previous grant was used for similar sidewalk revamp work from Two Brothers Pizza and Subs (formerly Pizza Palace) at 312 N. Main St. to the Madison Department of Social Services building at 101 S. Main St. The recently completed sidewalk improvement project originally included the southern section of Main Street however, the project area was reduced when the improvements proved to cost more than the previously awarded $350,000 grant.

As with the previously completed sidewalk work, current plans for the southern end of town would include improvements to “bits and pieces” of Main Street, not the entire length of the road, according to the county administrator. These “bits and pieces” include improvements to the entrance to Catherine Street and the Rosewood Building and sidewalk replacement along the northern side of Main Street from Madison Motorcar Company to the social services building, Kelley said at the meeting.

“We need some guidance as to whether you want to [do] what is shown in the plans or…start somewhere and do [the sidewalk] straight through,” she said.
Kelley told the committee they can revise which sections will undergo repairs as long as it is within the original project’s work area from Two Brothers Pizza and Subs to near the Madison County Circuit Court Clerk’s office at 538 S. Main St.

Gentry suggested the second round of grant money cover improvements to the areas the group had already planned to fix. Committee representatives intend to take a walking tour of Main Street to identify areas that could be added to the project if bids come in lower than expected. Officials plan to advertise for bids for the work in March 2009, Kelley said.

The committee has also discussed using part of the grant money to hire a paid manager to help the all-volunteer committee oversee the upcoming Main Street improvements on a daily basis.

The committee’s next regularly scheduled monthly meeting is set for noon Monday, Nov. 3 at the Madison Chamber of Commerce office.