Marion won’t fix driveway

Marion won’t fix driveway

Damage not city’s fault, says council

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion will not fix a crumbling section of driveway which a resident claims was damaged after the city replaced a water line.

Mayor Frank Fogleman told the city council that he looked at the driveway and does not believe the damage was caused by anything the city did.

“I called Mrs. Love. I just didn’t see what the city can do about it,” Fogleman said.

Last month, Janet Love, who lives at 121 Hollie Beth Cove, told the council that part of her driveway is sinking in an area above where the city dug under to lay a new water line.

The city bored under her driveway several years ago in order to replace an old two inch water line.

Love showed officials pictures of where the concrete is damaged in that one area. The rest of the driveway is undamaged.

Fogleman said he doesn’t agree that the damaged was caused by the city. No other driveway in the neighborhood shows any signs of damage.

“It is hard for me to comprehend how a two inch bore caused six or eight feet of damage,” Fogleman said.

Fogleman said there are also depression marks in the area that is damaged which appear to have been caused by a heavy vehicle which was parked there for an extended period of time.

“It looks like something heavy had sat there,” Fogleman said. “And it looked wide. I can’t imagine that a bore caused that.” Water Department Manager Jim Shempert told the city council at its last meeting that he thought the concrete was culprit.

Love argued that if the concrete was bad then the rest of the driveway would also be crumbling.

“As you can imagine, she wasn’t happy when I told her my thoughts,” Fogleman said. “I’m just not in agreement with her that (bore) caused the damage.”

By Mark Randall