It would seem that both of you would agree with the GM that the pipes and ditches in the area were cleaned late last year. However, some additional debris has since collected, and leaf collection was not at the best times, and perhaps missed in some areas..

My take after our meeting is that the combination of the new pipe under Beauchamp Road and the cleaning of pipes and ditches has greatly alleviated the flooding problems, but there are still some major items that need to be addressed. For example, the water leaving Bainbridge Pond comes out of two pipes, runs in a ditch for perhaps 75 yards and then into two more pipes taking the water under Beacon Hill Road. The flow then proceeds to Sandy Hook Road but there is only a single pipe under Sandy Hook. In other words there is a choke point that impedes the flow of water with resultant flooding. Such choke points, wherever they happen, must be eliminated, and no amount of ditch cleaning is going to solve the problem. It's like trying to put full flow from a fire hose into a pipe the size of a Coke bottle top. 

Based on my current knowledge of the situation, regular cleaning of these major flow pipes is extremely important. However, this does not require a full-time, four-man crew as is currently in the proposed budget. Perhaps a thorough check and cleaning schedule of three times per year.... October, December, and February ... would be enough.

The GM has said the four-man, fulltime crew would be cleaning 130 or so miles of ditches. However, the major problem in Section 3, and throughout Ocean Pines, is not the normal road ditches or driveway pipes, rather the larger ditches where the flow becomes concentrated. Your home floods because the pond overflows, telling me the pipes out of the pond cannot handle the flow coming into the pond.

It is also fairly obvious that while drainage can be a problem in many areas, few other locations see the persistent water backups that occur in the Section 3 area.

What OPA needs is a solution that addresses major flow ditches and elimination of physical choke points along those major flow ditches.

In short, we need some infrastructure work and for whatever reason, the GM seems to be dragging his feet. He proposed having aerial elevation surveys and put a bid out for those. However, my understanding, after talking with the county, is the county already has these. Such surveys are used primarily for determining overall drainage flow areas, not checking elevations along existing ditches. This would be done via normal surveying operations.

Perhaps six months or more has passed since the GM said he was going to obtain bids on the aerial surveys. A couple of months ago he told the board he had received the bids but gave the board no details.

Now, under pressure from the board, mainly via Jack Collins and Bill Cordwell, some sort of committee is to be formed to look at drainage. Rather than create an ad Hoc board committee, the board decided to allow the GM to create the committee. This means association members may not even be allowed to attend the meetings. At this point there is no firm information about who might be on the GM's committee or when they might meet.

Interestingly, the board has not even pushed the GM to see the results of bids obtained by the GM. Frankly, we don't need  a committee on this. We need the GM and the board to do their respective jobs and stop the foot dragging.