Ramos Court residents say property damage coming from flooding fix

There were tense situations and major recovery efforts along Ramos Court in the lower valley after a levee break in 2011 along the Franklin canal drenched residents and ruined homes. Now there might be other problems stemming from the fix to that situation.

“We’ve been having a problem with trying to resolve a problem with the city in regards to the damage that’s been done to my property,” said resident and small apartment owner Oscar Acosta.

Acosta said the earth under his building is being washed away because of construction delays.

It’s a different story for residents just down the street.

“On this part of Ramos Court, it’s almost completed,” said Mario Guera, who lives on the eastern part of the street. “We just need the landscaping. But it’s better than what we had a couple of years back when we had that flood with the canal.”

But on the western part of Ramos Court, residents said there are big problems stemming from delays in construction for the overall project. And those are leading to major issues including foundation problems.

“So if I don’t protect that pretty soon, I’m going to wind up with a leaning Tower of Pisa,” Acosta said. “The grade and the vibrations will make my building shift.”

City Rep. Emma Acosta said her office has gotten the residents’ complaints, and has been going through the city’s process to get answers. She said city staff tell here there are legal discussions underway about how to fix the problem. But in the meantime, she’s been told to bring concerns directly to the city manager to work on getting answers.

“So I’ll probably talk to him again next week,” Rep. Acosta said. “Either that or I’ll put an item on the agenda again. I think you’ve seen a lot of different issues that mayor and council have had where we’re not getting the communication – I think we talked about it at length today, that we need to communicate with each other, and they need to let us know because we do represent the community.”

In response to questions to the city’s engineering department, spokesman Martin Bartlett sent ABC-7 this statement:

“The City of El Paso is reconstructing Ramos Court and several adjacent streets to improve the visual image of and drainage infrastructure in the neighborhood. The project’s timeline has been extended to add trees and landscaping as required by city ordinance. The city will continue working with residents to mitigate any negative impacts between now and the completion of the project which is expected by the end of the year.”