KIMBALL, Tenn. - Some residents say their property is being washed down Kimball Cove Branch after recent heavy rains and flooding, and they want the city to do something to stop it.
At the February meeting of the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen, resident Mary Jo Talley spoke about the city's flooding problems.
Talley lives next to the creek, which runs along Hillcrest Drive and Pinecrest Lane, and said she's never seen flooding at her house like she's seen lately.
Mayor Rex Pesnell said the city has a plan to address the problem, but workers haven't been able to start because it's been too wet.
"We're waiting on it to freeze real good or either dry up a little bit because we feel like if we try to get in there right now, it would just tear up more than we would fix," he said.
Pesnell said he described the city's plan privately to Talley and some other residents and it "seemed to be satisfactory" to them, but he did not share the details publicly.
"We're going to do that," he told those residents. "I can't guarantee you anything past that."
Resident Butch Maynor said the "past that" part would include actually entering the creek to do work, which would involve "a lot of red tape" and "a lot of bureaucracy to go through."
He said several other spots farther downstream in the creek need some flooding prevention work, too.
"Just about everywhere that creek takes a bend, with the water we've had, she's taking a pounding," Maynor said.
The city has fixed some of the creek's problem areas several times, Pesnell said, but "it just doesn't hold."
"We've got to look at something else that's going to be a little stronger to take care of it," he said.
Pesnell said he would be contacting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which "controls what goes on in that creek bed," to find out what the city is allowed to do there to help with the flooding problems.
"We're going to make an attempt to address those issues," he said.
Alderman Mark Payne said he plans to meet with affected residents to examine the area firsthand and see if there is something more the town can do to help.
Whatever work the city does needs to be permanent, Talley said.
"I mean, just going in there and putting rocks up, that is not going to take care of the problem," she told the board. "If I have your word for it, I'm going to sit down, but I'm not going away."
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.