Somerset —
An old soft drink bottle uncovered this week is testament to time and money spent over the years to solve surface water drainage problems in Richard’s Court.
Ed Massey, director of Clifty Heights Community Develop-ment, general contractor for a current $125,000 project in Richard’s Court, said a Pepsi Cola bottle, dated 1938, establishes the time of an early effort to control flooding in the area.
The bottle was found in the ground about two feet above a unique drainage cover made of railroad ties. Massey and City Engineer Alex Godsey believe the old ties may be the city’s first major effort to control flooding in the Richard’s Court area.
W.C. “Leggs” Norfleet was mayor of Somerset during the late 1930s. “He was a very tall man,” recalls Mabel Love, a retired longtime city employee. “His legs were so long; that’s why they called him “Leggs,” she remembers.
As an afterthought, Love noted that 1938, the date on the soft drink bottle, “ ... is the year Clarence and I got married.” Clarence Love was Somerset city clerk for many years. He is now retired and spends a lot of time on the golf course.
Richard’s Court is a residential neighborhood southeast of downtown. The lowest point off Rosewood Avenue and Richard’s Court (street) accepts surface water from a large area bounded on the south by Clements Avenue; on the west by South Central Avenue; on the east by Grande Avenue, and on the north by East Mt. Vernon Street.
Massey and Godsey pointed out that Richard’s Court is not located over a cave, as many believe. The area rests on a limestone stratum carved with crevices and fissures that accept an abundance of surface water.
Richard’s Court doesn’t flood as seriously as it formerly did. However, during the record rainfall the first of May, water rose in the area, but not to an historical high.
“I feel confident we have made it better,” said Godsey. “But the ground will accept only so much water.”
The current project –– insulation of a “storm water quality box” –– is, in laymen’s term, a filter to catch debris that would clog the crevices and fissures in the underground limestone, thereby reducing capacity to accept surface water. Fabric mesh, three-quarter inch by three-quarter inch –– will remove trash and sediment from the water before it enters the ground. Godsey said the city is acquiring a suction device to remove debris from the mesh baskets that will line the box.
Massey expressed amazement that, without global positioning system equipment, the 1930’s filtering system fashioned of railroad ties was within a quarter of an inch from the GPS-located “storm water quality box.”
The old drainage grate apparently was a cage-like device built with railroad ties. Some ties were upright and others were laid adjacent on the ground above the water’s underground route. The ties, obviously treated by Southern Railway, are in excellent shape, still guarding openings in the limestone base.
Godsey said the new filter box will be in place by the end of July. Ditches and disturbed ground in the area will disappear under a carpet of grass,” Massey assured.
The work done in the late 1930s was without visible flaw despite an empty whiskey bottle among soft drink and several other vintage bottles uncovered in the excavated area.
“To do it that well, they must not have passed the bottle,” quipped a wag.
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