Rick Ripley has been doing a slow boil.
He lives in North Hill. As he was driving to work one day, he noticed a stream of water leaking from the ground in the front yard of a house about a mile from his.
The next day, the leak — near the intersection of Uhler Avenue and Cuyahoga Street — was still spewing at the same rate.
Same thing the following day. And the day after that.
Water is a powerful force. A prolonged flow can alter topography and make a mess of all sorts of things.
Ripley was worried not only about the waste of water but that the flow would ruin the curb, the sidewalk, the street and who knows what else. So he called the water department and reported it.
He was told the city was aware of the leak but that nothing would be done because the break in the waterline was on the homeowner’s property, not on land controlled by the city.
He was incredulous. The city was just going to sit there and let the water continue to flow, just because it wasn’t the city’s responsibility?
Five more days passed — 10 days in all — before the river stopped.
He couldn’t believe the city would sit on its hands for that long. I couldn’t, either, until I found out why.
Akron Service Director John Moore says Akron’s longstanding policy in these situations is to give the homeowner 30 days to make the repair as long as the leak isn’t causing major damage.
Two reasons:
1.) That kind of repair costs in the neighborhood of $1,200 to $1,500, which most people don’t have sitting on top of their dresser.
2.) Shutting off the water would deprive the homeowner of — duh — water. No baths. No showers. No dish washing. No washing machine.
The homeowner doesn’t have to pay for the wasted water because that H2O isn’t going through the meter.
City Hall spokeswoman Christine Curry says such a break costs only “pennies to the city.”
Things are different in the winter. If the temperature is below freezing and ice begins to build up on sidewalks and streets, it becomes a safety issue, and the city will shut the homeowner down.
Ripley, the North Hill resident, thinks the city is completely off base.
“I just think it’s a ridiculous policy to tell somebody, ‘Well, you’ve got 30 days,’ while public utilities are just running rampant.…
“They don’t have any problem cutting grasses and then charging somebody a crazy amount of dollars and throwing it on their taxes if it doesn’t get paid.…
“Somebody could have gone out there and remade the connection and [charged] the customer.”
The service director says workers looked at the property and didn’t believe the leak was causing serious damage. If it were, he says, the water would have been shut off.
Ripley vehemently disagrees with the assessment of damage, which he says is significant.
“I don’t care about the ground; I’m talking about concrete, brick and curbside,” he says. “The sidewalk and street have lifted up 4 to 6 inches.”
After taking a firsthand look, I’d say Ripley is right.
The bricks in front of the house in question are noticeably higher on the curb than in front of other residences. And as you move from the curb toward the center of the street, a valley is evident. Bricks along the edges of the valley are farther apart than in other locations.
Although I can understand the city’s point of view, maybe this policy needs to be revisited.
What do you think?
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31