Oxford Village officials are attempting to sort things out and find a solution to a drainage problem that’s left a homeowner on Park St. with almost $8,000 in flood damage.

Following the advice of village attorney Bob Davis and nearly an hour of discussion, council voted 5-0 last week to schedule a closed session meeting as soon as possible to review and discuss the situation.

Included in that motion was direction to re-issue a stop work order for the new house being built at 100 Park St., which allegedly contributed to this flooding.

“I’m not trying to kick this can down the road,” Davis explained. “I’m trying to get to the right remedy by the right party.”

A special closed session council meeting has since been scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Back in January, Steve Ruch, who owns the home at 103 Park St., west of Jersey St., watched his basement flood not once, but twice, during the rains.

As a result, he suffered $7,716 worth of damage, which included carpeting, flooring, clothing and furniture, according to a claim submitted to the village.

Ruch’s home insurance does not cover storm water damage, so he submitted his list of damages to the village, which then forwarded the claim to its insurance carrier.

He told officials he “never had a need for” such insurance coverage because his basement “never even threatened to flood before.”

Ruch explained that over the years, he’s experienced flooding in his yard, but never anything like this.

“In 30 years, the most water that’s ever been in my backyard (was) ankle deep,” he told council. “You can see by the picture, I’m knee deep.”

He believes it’s primarily due to the construction of 100 Park St., which is across the street on the south side, just east of his home.

“This past summer the builder who purchased the property . . . significantly changed the grade of his property by filling in a drainage ditch, building up the property grade and destroying another grade,” Ruch wrote in a Jan. 17 letter to village Manager Joe Young.

In his letter, Ruch noted he expressed his concerns to the village that “the changing of the grade and the elimination of the ditch would cause my basement to flood during

the winter and spring thaws,” but he claims his concerns were “disregarded with no investigation.”

A Jan. 20 e-mail from village engineer Chad Findley, of the Pontiac-based Nowak & Fraus Engineers, to Young pointed to 100 Park St. as a source of the excess water on Ruch’s property.

“Based on my site visit, it appears that the new development along the south side of Park Street is contributing to an increase in storm water runoff to 103 Park Street,” Findley wrote.

Councilman Dave Bailey argued an engineering degree was not necessary to see what impact the work done at 100 Park St. was going to have on surrounding properties.

“Like the old saying, ‘You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,’ you don’t have to be an engineer to know that water flows downhill,” he said. “The builder should have known that water flows downhill.”

In a Jan. 26 e-mail to village Clerk Susan Nassar, Findley explained “there is no rule or requirement (concerning) the finish grade of a house above the road.”

“In general, it is preferable to have the finish grade above the road so that storm water drains to the road,” he wrote.

Young argued the flooding at 103 Park St. was caused by a “combination of issues.”

“It’s not (attributable) to just one single factor,” he said.

Young acknowledged the work done at 100 Park St. contributed to the situation, but he noted that weather conditions and the road itself also came “into play.”

He explained there was “unusual weather” in that it rained, instead of snowing, and since the ground was frozen, the storm water could not be absorbed, so it just flowed along the surface. “In normal winter weather, we would not have had this because we wouldn’t have (had) rain,” Young said.

In addition to this, Young explained this portion of Park St., located west of Jersey St., drains to the north. There is no crown in the middle of the road to direct storm water runoff to both the north and south sides.

Findley noted the same thing in his Jan. 26 e-mail to Nassar. “This is an unusual circumstance where the road does not have a normal crown and the property to the north of Park Street is below the road,” he wrote.

The manager also noted the builder of 100 Park St. failed to install the required silt fence, a temporary sediment control device used on construction sites, prior to the rains.

Don Brantley, superintendent of the village Department of Public Works, explained that had a silt fence been in place, some of the water would have hit it and been diverted to the west. “I’m not saying all of it, but it would have helped,” he said.

Councilman Erik Dolan pointed out, “This isn’t the first time it’s rained hard in the middle of winter.”

“This is the first time we’ve had frozen ground and rain in January to this extent,” Young replied.

Ruch told council he’s “not saying” the construction at 100 Park St. was the only reason for the flooding “because I know we get drainage from other areas . . . but that was the (largest) contributing factor to that (flood) water.”

“I walked across the street and that water was rolling across the street, from that property, over my foot,” he told council. “That’s how fast it was coming.”

A stop work order was placed Jan. 24 on 100 Park St. by the village building official. However, it was lifted after a silt fence was installed and additional temporary drainage improvements were made and deemed to be “satisfactory” following a re-inspection of the property on Feb. 7, according to Young.

After listening to everything at the meeting, council decided to put the stop work order back in place.

There was lots of discussion about potential drainage solutions including a swale, a ditch with culverts beneath the driveways and tying into the Oakland County Drahner Drain.

Young proposed reconstructing Park St., from Jersey St. to the west, with a crown and storm water basins. The estimated cost would be $3,000 to $5,000 for design engineering, plus at least $100,000 for the actual construction, which includes creating water taps for seven vacant lots and one existing house on a well, according to the manager.

Ruch indicated he needs the village to do something to fix this, so he can move forward.

“Right now, I can’t even do anything with my basement until we come up with a solution and I see whether or not it works,” he said.