All wet again

For most of the 19 years Diane Ford has lived on Berkshire Street, she and neighbors have been able to live with the small puddle that would appear after rain or snowmelt.

Then, the street was paved two years ago, and the small puddle became a big puddle that stretched across two properties, overflowing the curb, swamping yards and blocking the stone pathway leading to Ford’s front door and mailbox.

“It’s all ice in the winter,” Ford said Friday afternoon, after the puddle from the previous night’s rain had begun to recede – but which still was several inches deep by her front walkway.

It doesn’t take a monsoon to create the puddle. While some city streets are plagued with flooding after heavy downpours, all it takes is a night of steady rain for the puddle to form and grow, she said.

Ford thinks the problem should be easy to fix. There’s a storm drain grate on the opposite side of the street near a neighbor’s house and a similar drain on the east side of the street should take care of the problem, she said.

“All they have to do is put a drain in there, and they won’t do it,” Ford said.

Ford and neighbors have called various city officials in the street, engineering and mayor’s departments. So far, there hasn’t been a response, she said.

They’re crossing their fingers that the problem will be addressed soon.