By MEG LANDERS
Mail Tribune

A couple of northeast Medford property owners have learned you have to work things out with your neighbor, even when your neighbor is the city.

Ron Unis owns property on Delta Waters Road, and his neighbor on two sides is the city of Medford, which he claims owes him $6,000 from water damage after recent winter downpours. Another neighbor filed a claim with the city for $3,000 in damages from the same event.

"Every time it rains, it floods my property," said Unis, 55, who rents out his Delta Waters house.

Unis says the city’s temporary fixes aren’t going to do the trick, but the city says that’s all it can do, at least for another three to seven years.

Advertisement

In early December Unis received a call from his tenants reporting water coming into the house through the heat vents in the floor, he said. He found water from the adjacent Kennedy Elementary ball fields, just south of his property and slightly uphill, flooding his property.

"Literally the water was 18 inches up the siding of the house," said Unis.

Unis learned there was an old drainage culvert on property to the east of his that wasn’t working properly. The property happened also to be owned by the city, so he reported it to city staff, and public works crews responded.

Unis spent $6,000 to pump out the crawlspace, replace wet insulation, put new ducts in. And he filed a claim with the city to be reimbursed.

Medford had purchased the property to the east of Unis’ in the mid-1990s as part of a project to realign Springbrook Road.

As it is now, drivers heading north on Springbrook Road must make a left turn onto Delta Waters Road, travel about 200 feet, and make a right turn back onto Springbrook. City engineers have deemed this unsafe, and plan a realigned road where two homes now stand.

The city purchased and rents out the two houses on the southwest corner of Springbrook and Delta Waters; the homes will be demolished or moved when construction begins.

The project was set to begin, then residents on Lone Pine Road asked that their street improvement project take priority, so Springbrook got bumped. It’s now scheduled to be done between 2009 and 2013.

Barbara Mason, who lives in the home in front of Unis’ property, is in the same boat as Unis.

"We had about 9,000 gallons of water under the house," she said. "We’ve been here 15 years and that’s the first time that’s ever happened."

She said there has not been a problem on her property since the public works department has improved drainage, and she hopes it’s resolved. Meanwhile she’s also awaiting word on whether the city’s insurance company is going to pay some or all of the $3,000 claim she submitted for work to pump out water and replace heating ducts beneath the house.

Cory Crebbin, Medford public works director, said he’s not surprised that these neighbors are seeing flooding they’ve never seen — he’s been getting such calls in from all over the city for the past couple months because it’s been an unusually wet winter.

Beyond that, Crebbin said he couldn’t talk about the issue because it’s being handled by the insurance company.

Though the city has responded to the complaints by coming out and cleaning out a plugged culvert on city property as well as bulldozing the mud to create a berm, Unis said he fears the efforts don’t solve the problem because the culvert’s not very big and the berm isn’t very high.

"It if rains hard that house is going to be flooded again," he said. "A proper drainage system has gotta be developed for that property."

But public works doesn’t plan to do any further drainage work on the parcel south of Unis’ property.

"We can’t go sending water to places it hasn’t gone before," said Crebbin.

He said there’s no work scheduled until the storm drains are designed for the realignment of Springbrook Road, and that’s three to seven years out.

Meanwhile, Unis said the insurance company told him they will let him know next week of any reimbursement they may provide.

Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail mlanders@mailtribune.com.