The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie Christina Thomas addresses Elkins City Council’s Municipal Properties Committee meeting over her concerns with the continuous flooding that occurs on Diamond Street and, subsequently, other streets Monday.

ELKINS — The West Virginia Department of Highways has agreed to work with the City of Elkins to solve a recurring flooding issue, a city official said.

Elkins City Operations Manager Michael Kesecker gave an update Monday on a collaboration with the West Virginia Department of Highways in regard to the repetitive flooding on Diamond Street and Randolph Avenue.

During Monday morning’s Elkins City Council’s Municipal Properties Committee meeting, Kesecker informed committee members, several city administrative officers and a few concerned members of the public that, just minutes before the meeting’s start, the DOH confirmed that the state plans to fix a damaged water culvert on Diamond Street. The specific culvert that the DOH plans to fix was described by Kesecker as “collapsed” and “almost pinched shut.”

“That will allow (the DOH) to get the water from going over top the road and running down, if you go up Diamond Street, running down the right side of the street,” Kesecker said. “It’ll get it underneath the road.”

This comes after heavy rainfall and snow melting caused major flooding in the area at the beginning of the year. At the end of January, flooding from Diamond Street and nearby roads led to a part of Randolph Avenue becoming fully submerged and closed off. This, according to residents in the area, is not a new phenomenon, but is getting worse.

Christina Thomas, whose family had lived on Diamond Street for generations, spoke to the Municipal Properties Committee during the Monday meeting’s public comment portion. She said there is record of complaints being made to the city about stormwater and clogged drains on Diamond Street as early as 1994.

“Since then, there have been bandaids put on it,” Thomas told the committee. “There hasn’t been any type of real fix for this issue, and it’s only getting worse, and the residents of Diamond Street deserve better… This flooding has increased dramatically since the 1990s. It is at the point now, it is not just an inconvenience, it’s a safety issue.”

The City of Elkins, the DOH and a number of concerned residents have met several times to discuss the flooding issue, with one meeting drawing nearly two dozen residents in attendance, according to Fourth Ward Council Member and member of the Municipal Properties Committee Nanci Bross-Fregonara. Members of the committee also toured Diamond Street on March 6 to understand how and where the flooding occurs, and were met with enthusiastic support from Diamond Street residents, Fregonara said.

Diamond Street and the culverts that run alongside and under it are both in and out of Elkins city limits and, therefore, are both the jurisdiction of the City of Elkins and DOH. The damaged culvert is in the DOH’s jurisdiction.

Kesecker said the DOH did not give a date or time frame for when the work on the damaged culvert will be done, but he said DOH “gave us their word they’re going to do it.”

Kesecker added that, on the city’s end, he and members of the Operations Department have found and will be reaching out to a company that specializes in inspecting and cleaning out box culverts, like the ones on Diamond Street.

“We’re going to have them on-site,” Kesecker said. “They will look at our situation and provide us with an estimate, and I will lobby to make that happen within our budget, somehow, someway, to get these box culverts cleaned out.”

Kesecker added though that the city does not want to clean out all the culverts until the damaged culvert is fixed by the DOH, as that specific culvert has been found to be one of the main factors in the flooding. He also explained that the company, after inspection, may say that the culverts are so dilapidated that they need to be replaced.

“What I don’t want to do is put money into cleaning the box culvert simply next year to have the same problem come back again because it’s so deteriorated and dilapidated,” Kesecker said. “Nobody wants that. We’ve band-aided this thing to death over the years.”

Kesecker pointed out that, by working on Diamond Street, and nearby Weese Street and Thorn Avenue, it will help the DOH in the long run because they will no longer have to close down Randolph Avenue due to high water.

It would also help Graham Street and Davis Street, which both sit across from Diamond Street, as both streets also flood when the water crosses Randolph Avenue.