CLEVELAND — Homeowners living on East 72nd Street in Cleveland's Broadway neighborhood have some serious questions about infrastructure funding, after dealing with two water main breaks and sinkhole issues for weeks.
Marlene Mitchell told News 5 that the constant water leak in her neighborhood has created a growing sinkhole in front of her home and has her so worried about neighborhood safety, she's been too afraid to use her driveway since February. Mitchell said calls to the city have produced few results that have earned her and her neighbors' little information on when repairs will be completed.
“Oh my God, I’m so upset, I don’t know who to call and get a hold of to get this taken care of," Mitchell said. “I am so worried about a collapse, I don’t even know what’s under the sidewalk, because if somebody walks on it is this going to cave in and somebody is going to get hurt. No one is answering me on what happened. How is this going to be repaired, who’s going to repair it, how long is this going to take, the sinkhole has been here since February.”
Fellow homeowners Melanie Taylor and Matthew Clark told News 5 their neighborhood deserves more infrastructure improvement funds, and believe if the water main issue had occurred in Cleveland's Tremont or Ohio City, or in a Northeast Ohio suburb repairs would have been completed weeks ago.
"My husband came through the door and he’s like oh my gosh there’s a river out front," Taylor said. “I’ve lived here all my life, I don’t understand it, because we’re good people here and we’re hard-working people also.”
“If this was the suburbs, they probably would have been on it right away," Clark said. "Just don’t forget about us, put us on the back burner, we pay our taxes too, like everybody else.”
News 5 reached out to Ward 6 City Council President Blaine Griffin, who called the water department to check on repairs and give us a status report on the quest to attract significant federal infrastructure dollars to Cleveland over the next year. Griffin said a group of council members traveled to Washington D.C. in March to lobby for Cleveland's share of the recently passed $55 billion federal infrastructure bill.
“I do sympathize with the homeowners, and I do understand their frustrations," Griffin said. “We need to make sure that we get help from the federal government because local government is not going to be able to take care of the infrastructure needs that we have.”
“There's never been a more urgent time for us to all lock arms and lobby our federal government to make sure we meet the infrastructure needs for these legacy cities like Cleveland. I do believe the Department of Public Utilities is identifying priority pipes that need to be repaired.”
News 5 also contacted the Cleveland Division of Water about the water main and sinkholes issues and it responded immediately, sending repair crews to the scene on May 27, quickly stopping the flow of water. News 5 will continue to monitor ongoing repairs in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Mitchell was pleased with the water department's response but is hoping it will follow up and complete the job in the coming days.
“They came, they took pictures, but it still wasn't being fixed," Mitchell said. "I called you, they came and they fixed it the day I talked to you, but this has been here since Friday.”
