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Burnwick Road residents urge immediate action after years of delays on drainage project
Summary
Residents from a single-access neighborhood told council on Oct. 21 that a decade of delays on a Burnwick Road drainage project risks cutting off 36 homes if a failing storm pipe collapses; the speakers said prior city language asked for homeowner indemnities and requested near-term council assistance.
At the Oct. 21 Brookhaven City Council meeting, several Burnwick Road residents said years of delay on a storm-drainage repair have left their neighborhood at risk and asked the council to move the project forward.
"Move it along, please," resident David Maxwell said, recounting about a decade of work requests and meetings with public-works staff. Maxwell said the City's earlier draft agreement asked for a homeowner indemnity that would obligate residents for the entirety of the public-works project; he said that request was unreasonable and has been the subject of back-and-forth negotiations.
Maxwell and neighbors said roughly 36 homes rely on a single access road; they described a 4-foot diameter storm pipe running beneath the roadway and warned that further collapse would isolate residents and complicate emergency access. "If that pipe collapses further...we're truly gonna be cut off in a very serious way," resident Bill Meer told the council, urging prioritization.
Resident Glenn Viers said the neighborhood has repeatedly been told the project was a priority but that it keeps getting deferred, and he urged the council to address the issue now to avoid a much larger, costlier reconstruction later.
City Manager Christian Sigman responded during the meeting with timing context, indicating the project's projected timeline could be multiple years (staff described permitting, design and construction sequencing), and said staff would provide details through the budget and public-works processes. Sigman also explained some repair strategies (relining versus full excavation) can reduce time and cost if the condition allows.
What residents want: near-term action, clearer timelines, and revised contractual terms that do not place unreasonable personal indemnity obligations on homeowners. Council and staff acknowledged the safety implications for a single‑ingress neighborhood and heard the engineering descriptions and budget context provided by residents and staff.
Next steps: the comments were entered into the public record; residents said they have been in contact with Councilmember Michael Diaz and asked the council to prioritize the site in upcoming capital or contingency planning.
