Dozens of residents attended a Pasco County Commission workshop, where officials discussed a project to fix pothole filled roads. But they weren't there to talk about concrete.
“The drainage has been an issue forever and ever,” resident Patrick Culnen said. “It gets worse and worse. They are going to turn around, pave new roads and we are going to be sitting here looking at them… underwater.”
District 3 Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said she understands residents who live near Moog Road and Peterborough Street are concerned about flooding and their roads.
“They are both important," Starkey said. "They are both equally important. I am not saying one is more important than the other but to fix the drainage we have yet to come up in this county with a funding source. Where’s the money going to come to fix these old storm water drains?”
Starkey said the county has $300 million worth of storm water repairs that needs to be done, and their budget is only $14 million a year. The county said residents will have to pay more in taxes to fix their roads and drainage. Residents said they already pay for enough.
“I really can't afford to be paying all this extra for the road,” Alma Sammartano said. "With this meeting, I feel like we didn't get anywhere.”
Residents say the roads here were messed up before the floods, and now the floods in August made them worse, and when it rains again they believe all that hard work to fix the pot holes will go down the drain along with their nearly $2700 tax bill to fix them.
“They are going to turn around pave new roads and we are going to be sitting here looking at them underwater,” Culnen said.
A final vote by the board of commissioners will take place on Feb. 24.
The initial estimate for the drainage project for that area is priced at $2 million dollars. Residents would have to pay for that too.
