LANDRUM – “I’ve already spent $3,500 to tear down part of my work shop,” said Sherry Vondrasek. “I pay my taxes. I need some help.” 

Vondrasek is one a group of five Landrum residents who spoke at the Nov. 14 Landrum City Council meeting. Vondrasek, and others who live on or near Oak Ave., said they are having difficulties with storm water runoff.  

John Cash said his neighbor spends her time after a hard rain trying to clean out the storm drains and get water out of her basement. Cash said much of the problem was that the nearby church had torn down some houses and expanded a parking lot. He said the additional pavement changed the drainage for storm water.  

“I don’t have anything against the church, but if we get four inches of rain in a day, I get water in my basement,” Cash said.  

Realtor Madelon Wallace said the problem affected house values. “When I sell a house I have to do a disclosure about any water problems the house may have. This [the water drainage problem]reduces the value of these homes,” Wallace said. 

Wallace went on to point out that the Landrum storm water system is antiquated and many of the pipes no longer connect. She said when Spartanburg Water redid the pipes on Pine St. [near Vondrasek and Cash’s neighborhood] they didn’t do the grading right.  

“The water comes from three streets down and goes straight across her [Vondrasek’s] property,” Wallace said. “The water’s trying to get where its supposed to go but there’s no where for it to go.” 

Landrum City Administrator Rich Caplan said though the city has been able to do some work to address the problem on public property, they have not been able to address issues affecting private property. He suggested the first step was to consider getting an engineering study of the town’s storm water system. He added that such a study could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000. 

“We have this problem [storm water drainage] in many older neighborhoods in the city,” said Caplan, who pointed out that many of the pipes were clay designed to last only 50 years. 

Council member Jon Mathis said, “We’re going to have to bite the bullet at some time. The infrastructure is corroding. We need to look at getting a study.” 

Matheis continued saying that whether the repairs cost as much as $5 million or $10 million somewhere down the line the town may have to raise taxes. “I don’t like saying this,” he said. “But we have to do something.” 

Both Caplan and Mayor Robert Briggs said there was a small property tax for Spartanburg County that was designated for storm water maintenance. Caplan added that the revenue from the tax was only enough to pay for studies and not any of the actual work. With the consensus of the council members, Briggs asked Caplan to look at getting some estimates for an engineering study.