The frustration and humor of a handful of County Line Road residents was expressed in two signs recently along the flooded section of the Groveland Township thoroughfare: ‘No wake zone,? and ‘Fish crossing.?
The buffoonery, however, ends in the murky depths of a 10-acre pond that’s nearly covered the township road prompting the Road Commission for Oakland County to spend scarce taxpayer dollars on more than thousands of yards of fill dirt just to keep the two lanes open.
We commend both the Groveland and Atlas township officials, RCOC employees, Genesee County Road Commission engineers, Department of Environmentally Quality technicians, along with Rep. Paul Scott for making the trek to County Line Road on Wednesday morning to realize firsthand the flooding issues area residents are now facing. While the hour-long discussion was rather heated at times, a plan was eventually hammered out suggesting an 800-foot trench is needed across Consumers Energy’s right-of-way to help alleviate the flooding.
So what’s the holdup?
Well, it seems Consumers Energy is rather slow in allowing access to the property’perhaps as much as 60 days, quipped a RCOC engineer. Would it have been too much for Consumers Energy officials to don rubber boots and visit the flooded location? Would it be too much to help the paying utility customers?
The residents are not asking for a paved road or any thing extra, only a road that is both passable and safe.
Too many times the projects in the northern sections of Oakland County are delayed or forgotten. It’s understandable that population and traffic often dictates where available resources are spent. In this case, however, it’s a matter of safety, not dollars.
Will it take a vehicle or worse yet, a school bus veering off the dilapidated road into five feet of water to attract the attention of the big utility company?
We certainly hope not.
The urgency and gravity of the soaked roadway requires action. We pay our utility bills, we are the customers here’let’s get some service.