By John Estridge and John Estridge photos
Progress Street Hill slipped two inches during construction of a new sewage main at the bottom of the hill, officials claim. Thus, the street is once again breaking apart, and that is negatively affecting many things, including the angled parking spaces Valley House Flats needs for its residents.
Also, the overlook on Progress Street is named for Don Jobe, and his wife, Billie Jean Jobe. Don wants the town to cut the trees back off the hill or top them so people can once again see the river and have a nice view from the overlook. Now all one can see from the overlook is a forest of trees, with branches and leaves at the same height or higher than the overlook. Nothing can be viewed but a sea of trees, leaves and branches.
The hill where Progress Street is, is all fill. Engineers who earlier studied the situation said the fill was put in “unengineered,” meaning there is no telling how many voids are in there, how large the voids are and there is no way to predict how much the hill will slip at any given time.
Many believe when the overlook was constructed through a grant secured by former State Representative Jud McMillin, the cutting of the trees on the hill to allow a beautiful view of the Whitewater River’s west fork, exacerbated the hill’s problems and caused the hill to slip a great deal. The sidewalk on the south side of Progress Street toward its intersection with Fourth Street slipped so much, the sidewalk was undermined to the point a grown man could crawl underneath the sidewalk. For a long stretch of the sidewalk, there was no support for the sidewalk. It was hanging in air. That caused town officials to remove the sidewalk. After the sidewalk was taken out, the street was extensively patched to the point of an almost entire repavement.
Looking at the street after the latest slippage, large cracks are running all the way to the middle of the street. The cracks grow much larger toward the hill’s edge just to the west of the street. However, unlike when the sidewalk was undermined, this slippage is on the north end of Progress Street near its intersection with Fifth Street.
A woman, whose mother lives at Valley House Flats, complained to Brookville Town Council members at their latest meeting, Tuesday, July 13. She said her mother lives there and would like to have a car, but there are not enough parking spaces available for the residents. And, there are not any handicap parking spaces available for any of the Valley House Flats residents, the woman said in her communication to council.
Brookville Police Chief Terry Mitchum said there are no more parking places there. He said there can be no parking places from the overlook to the theatre because of the slippage. That can change when the town repaves the street, he told council.
Mitchum wants council members to fix the road and put more parking spaces between the overlook and the theater. He also wants to put handicap parking there.
BTC President Curtis Ward is confident now that the sewage line is in, the hill will become stable. Once the street is repaved, the parking problems will be alleviated, he said.
“Construction is done, there was minimal amount of drop elevation change after the last survey after the pylons were in,” Ward said.
Also, the woman’s daughter told council members in her communication she is also afraid Valley House Flats building will slip down the hill to the river.
Ward said that could not happen as the Valley House Flats project was engineered so it would not slip even if the hill did. Pylons were driven deep into the hill he said, and the building was constructed to be safe. What happened with the building collapse in Miami, Florida, killing more than 100 people will not happen here, he said.
“I think the way to address this is the Valley House was engineered, and the town took every possible avenue to make sure the liability that was deferred,” Ward said. “With parking, we will be addressing that.”
He said if the town does not get the Community Crossings Grant, the council will revisit that and then make a decision on how best to pay for the repaving.
Some on council believe making the street one-way will alleviate some of the parking problems. It is planned to be one way from Fifth Street west to Progress Street then south to Fourth Street and east to Main Street. However, Brookville Town Administrator Tim Ripperger said the engineering plan for the change was sent to the state for its approval and has been in Indianapolis for seven months waiting for that approval. To date, no action has been taken on it by the state, officials said.
Ward was upset the state has not taken any action on the application.
“That’s a long time,” Ward said.
Ripperger promised to do everything in his power to get the project approval moving at the state level.
Then, Ward addressed Jobe’s request to cut the trees back on the hill to allow the overlook to function as it was intended as an overlook.
“Create an overlook; I get it, it was beautiful while it was there, but we also have to have common sense,” Ward said about Jobe’s request. “I think we need to err on the side of caution.”
Justin Moore, a school board member who attends town council meetings, said taking out the tops of trees should not negatively affect the trees’ root system.
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