GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Grand Rapids neighbors from Allerton to Philadelphia Avenues are hoping for a final resolution to their months-long problem.
Back in June, a water main broke on the southeast side of Grand Rapids, flooding homes up and down the neighborhood. Monday night, the city held a meeting at Campus Elementary School with neighbors to hear their concerns and share available resources.
"We're not asking for you guys to move mountains, we're asking to be made whole again, that's it," said neighbor Larry Gibbs during the Monday night meeting.
They were joined by City Manager Mark Washington, City Staff and Third Ward Commissioners Kelsey Perdue and Bing Goei.
"Any time wasted is too much time wasted, so I don't disagree with the need to have solutions sooner, but unfortunately, we were prevented by the law to do any full restoration services," said Washington.
For over an hour, city leaders heard concerns from neighbors, ranging from the two and a half months it took for them to hear back from the city, to their claims being denied in late August.
While the city had tables up for residents to seek restoration services and help from Habitat For Humanity, neighbors like Larry Gibbs said it was too little too late.
"Now, all of a sudden, the water is gone, and everything's gone, and it looks like a perfectly fine house," said Gibbs. "Everything looks fine. It's like no, it's not, get over here when the damage was at its worst, and they didn't do that."
According to Water Systems Manager Wayne Jernberg, the water main that broke causing mass flooding and water damage, was caused by a 10-foot section of pipe splitting down the middle. The specific section that broke had been in the ground since the 1940's.
"With the proximity close to an elevated storage tank of over a million gallons," said Jernberg. "That was the reason for so much water in that valley of Philadelphia and Allerton."
City Leadership said during the meeting, the legal process is what took them so long to respond to residents.
Commissioner Kelsey Perdue said she empathizes with those still hurting.
"I understand why we took the route that we did, though I don't agree with it," said Perdue. "Folks should have heard from us a lot sooner. We should have been rallying resources a lot sooner. So while that has not been in my exact purview as a city commissioner, as soon as that came to my attention, Commissioner Goei and I had really just been pushing of like, what can we do now to help folks, and unfortunately, what we heard was, it's late. It's late."
It was also mentioned Monday night that neighbors are working on finding legal representation before any further steps are taken.