‘Definitely not happy’: Resident upset about sewer repairs after personal $12,000 fix

By Jon Paepcke

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    JEFFERSON COUNTY, Alabama (WVTM) — Shiny new pipes symbolize a major sewer upgrade for the heart of Homewood.

This week, Jefferson County crews began digging up Bonita Drive to replace the aging sewer line a block away from Shelley Matthews’ front door.

“I think that’s fabulous. I think it’s long overdue. Our pipes are our house, or so all we need to replace them ourselves,” Matthews said.

The Mountain Brook half of the $13.8 million project is complete.

The goal is to prevent future sewage overflows.

“There may be some very, very limited disruptions to people being able to flush the toilet, but it would probably be on the order of hours,” Jefferson County Environmental Services Director David Denard said.

However, for homeowner Hal White, the fix is a few months too late.

Earlier this spring, he paid a contractor $12,000 to dig up the street in front of his Bonita Drive house to repair a sewage overflow in his yard.

Now, he must watch tax-funded workers dig up the same section of street he personally had repaired just months earlier.

“Knowing that the backup was the cause probably of the whole pipe breaking and the backups, I think they didn’t pay me back for the whole thing,” White said.

White is glad his neighborhood’s sewer system is receiving an upgrade. He is just frustrated by the timing.

“Definitely wish they had done it six months sooner,” White said.

Pipe replacement in the Hollywood neighborhood should last until the end of September, with work to patch up the holes kicking off in October.

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