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During the Superintendent’s Report at the April 21 Demopolis City Schools Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Adam Pugh invited Jimmy Duncan of Duncan, Coker, and Associates – a civil engineering firm out of Tuscaloosa – to address the board regarding an evaluation of the drainage issues at Westside Elementary and Demopolis High.

“This is a preliminary analysis of storm drainage problems,” Duncan told the board during his first presentation.

Dr. Pugh had previously escorted Duncan around areas that were known to him as being problems, specifically Westside’s playground area and the ditch and surrounding areas at the high school.

According to the presentation and discussion, after heavy rain “a pond” forms in the Westside playground, and there is also a safety issue with the sidewalk and storm drain associated with it there. The Westside issues were deemed immediately necessary to be fixed this summer. During the discussion, the principals of other schools spoke up, mentioning items previously unknown, such as a flooding basement in the middle school that requires a sump pump to expel rainwater, and a roof leak at U.S. Jones Elementary.

Harris Hurst, Chairman of the Board of Education, suggested that all principals submit a report of any of these issues “that directly affect the kids” so that all issues can be addressed in a prompt manner.
The ditch at the high school causing standing water between the softball field and tennis courts as a result of built up silt is only one part of the problem there, according to several in attendance. Open ditches at the front of the school and around the stadium have little or no drainage piping to collect and divert the water, for one. The biggest problem seemed to be the lack of output potential.

According to some in attendance, the “neighbor to the south” had in the past made storm drainage prohibitive, requiring a complex and expensive system of concrete channels and culverts if the school was to cross their property with storm water. There was hope that the new property owners might be more open to workable solutions.

Duncan agreed to do a more in-depth evaluation and present a proposal to the board at a planned work session on May 5.

During the May 5 work session, Duncan presented a followup to his first address to the board, citing preliminary plans for solutions to the issues especially at Westside and U.S. Jones Elementary Schools, as well as the sump pump issue at Demopolis Middle School.

According to Duncan, the biggest problem at Jones is that a tiny pipe is “attempting to drain” the standing water above a sidewalk, and is simply too small and clogs easily. His solution is to lower the sidewalk and regrade some areas of the playground and surrounding yard to enable rainwater to escape.
“The problem, especially with Westside and Jones,” Duncan said, “is there’s no drainage infrastructure to connect to.”

Duncan went on to discuss DMS and the sump pump problem. It turns out after inspection that at least part of the problem with water in the basement was coming from a previously undiscovered water system leak.

DCS called in plumbers to repair the issue, but it was only able to be a temporary fix. Superintendent Pugh said he was told the old iron pipes in the building had “fulfilled their usefulness” and simply needed to be replaced because of age and wear.

Duncan discussed briefly the issues at the high school as well, stating that a formal design was needed, with a survey and measurements to arrive at a more precise cost estimate.

Due to the over $2million total system construction cost currently estimated – albeit with a 30% contingency added for surprises – Dr. Pugh and the board plan to attack the issues in phases, with phase one being repairing Westside and U.S. Jones drainage problems as soon as possible to have the least impact on the children.

The timeline still could stretch into fall before phase one is complete, due to regulations on how projects like this must be done.

Duncan will bring a Scope and Fee proposal to the board at their next meeting on May 19, at which point if the contract is approved, work can begin on the design of phase one. Besides overseeing the construction itself, Duncan and Coker will also manage the bidding process and interactions with the state Department of Construction Management for inspections, all of which from design to beginning construction could add 8-12 weeks to the process before the first shovel touches the ground.