Residents of Castleford Way are experiencing flooded properties, eroded lawns and construction debris every time it rains.
Kim Day, a resident of 23 Castleford Way, said that her concrete driveway is nearly washed away with every storm.
Day’s next door neighbor, Ron Fine, located at 25 Castleford Way, said that several of the shrubs in his yard are uprooted and his dog lot is often filled with mud, silt, rocks and branches. Nearly 15 homes on Castleford Way are effected similarly. Residents of Abby Lane, Abby Court and Ennismore Drive have also reported similar complaints to the Middlesboro Daily News.
The domino effect is allegedly caused by a construction project on property owned by Ken and Ann Macuila. Macuila is developing his land— situated uphill from Castleford Way on Thornaby Ridgeway, also in the Ambleside subdivision— into a horse farm.
When the flooding began in October 2008, an upset Day contacted the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection to file a complaint. The agency responded and according to documentation, cited Macuila for a violation.
Macuila said that the agency visited his construction site on three occasions, and claims that each time he complied with their directions and guidelines. “We’ve complied and probably more so, most of which was done voluntarily,” stated Macuila.
However, Macuila does accept some responsibility for the problems. Macuila said, as a precaution, he erected 400 feet of silt fence and hay around the perimeter of his property, to serve as an obstacle for the mud and water.
Day and Fine agreed that Macuila had installed a barrier. However, the barrier has since slid down the hill with rainwater. A portion of the fencing slid downhill onto Day’s property, where it has been since December, according to Day.
“Every time it rains, we’re flooded,” said Day.
The Bell County Road Department made a trip to Ambleside last month, in response to reports of debris scattered roadways. The crew installed large rocks around the culvert beside Day’s house and underneath her driveway to prevent further erosion. Representatives from the Bell County Road Department were unavailable for comment.
“We are just literally tired of working hard and cleaning up after his [Macuila’s] mess,” Fine remarked.
Sarah Miracle is a staff writer for the Daily News. She can be contacted via e-mail at smiracle@middlesborodailynews.com.
I don't know if you premiums would be affected if you took this to your insurance company but I do know that it won't cost you a dime to call and check into it. Due to a storm, we lost many shingles, 2 sections of our gutters and some vinyl edging around the top of our brick house last year. According to our agent, it was not supposed to affect our premiums (so they said) but to be safe we paid for the damage ourselves since it was fairly inexpensive to fix the problems. I would at least inquire with them and get their input. Again that is free to ask and won't effect your premiums at all if you don't file a claim.
I hope that some of this helps.
I don't know if you premiums would be affected if you took this to your insurance company but I do know that it won't cost you a dime to call and check into it. Due to a storm, we lost many shingles, 2 sections of our gutters and some vinyl edging around the top of our brick house last year. According to our agent, it was not supposed to affect our premiums (so they said) but to be safe we paid for the damage ourselves since it was fairly inexpensive to fix the problems. I would at least inquire with them and get their input. Again that is free to ask and won't effect your premiums at all if you don't file a claim.
I hope that some of this helps.
blahdeeblah,You hit the nail on the head when you stated, "No more development, not my problem." Have not contacted the insurance company, didn’t think about that. Would that not affect our premiums? Flood insurance we didn’t have to have since we live on a big hill surrounded by mountains and the only water was the small flow from the mountains until this happened.
We are not against a horse farm and the children up here are excited to think that horses will be in “their” back yard and there would have been no problems if it had been taken care of the first time around the right way. As far as increase of property value, I’m not sure. I mean if we have the flow from his land over taking us now I pray we don’t have the flow and smell of horse feces.
Let me say it’s been nice to hear your input, sometimes it takes an outsider that has nothing invested in the problem to solve or assist in the solution.
You know, it may not even be necessary to hire an attorney. Have any of you contacted your insurers? Your insurance companies should 1) pay to remove the silt and 2) since they have their own real estate attorneys, they would likely handle the legal aspects of the situation with Mr. Macuila. I do not know if it is necessary to have flood insurance in order to have runoff silt removed, however...and if it is necessary it would cost you a FORTUNE at this point to obtain it, considering you already have a problem. Have you contacted your insurance companies to at least inquire?
Also, and this is obviously very important, did you have a runoff problem BEFORE the construction on Mr. Macuila's property began?
The Bell Country Road dept. has been wonderful, I cannot say enough great things about these men, they as well as the Magistrate have been out many times and all hours of the night to try and divert the problems. These men work for hours just to leave and come back hours later to have the same thing all over again.I do not believe that the county billed him, don't really know.
Mr. Macuila knows who to contact, the first few times this happened we contacted him and he came over and walked our property and viewed what was taking place. I will say, Macuila put about six bales of straw, and two silt fences up, they were washed away with the next storm and washed out into the road and our yards. Needless to say the meeting didn’t go as planned. That is when we contacted the EPA due to the solid flow of mud coming from his land being deposited into the creek.
As far as the attorney goes I don’t want to get into what we were told due to this being an open web site and it maybe affecting a future case if all is not resolved. I mean is it really too much to ask or expect for someone to fix a problem that they caused?
As far as him giving me a certain finger, oh well if someone feels the need to stoop that low then so be it . I will however take any finger as long as it’s attached to a hand and it’s willing to help:). Calling Mr. Macuila out was not the point, we could not get him to listen or either he did not take the whole thing seriously. I would be more than happy as well as the other to sit and talk to him and come up with a solution.
If you don't think you have a HOA (Home Owner's Association) you probably don't. You would most likely be paying fees monthly for the upkeep of the community. Your HOA could also speak on the community's behalf. Perhaps you do have one but have no fees. If you guys really don't have an HOA, I am shocked. Is there an office? Someone who upkeeps the pool? Who pays for the upkeep of the pool? Those people should have a serious interest in the damage Mr. Macuila’s property is causing to your property and in your streets...if for no other reason than to keep the property values up for future investments in the area. Does Vaughn and Melton own Ambleside? If so, do you have a contact there and again if so, have you contacted that person?
I don't know the full story of Mr. Macuila's property...obviously I only have one side here. But I truly feel that all of you being affected should come together, pool your resources and hire an attorney. The Bell County Road Department has already done some work to help you guys, I'm assuming on the county's dime...so kudos to them for stepping in...
Has Mr. Macuila contacted any of you since this article appeared? Maybe he doesn't know who to contact and, if I were him, I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable knocking on doors in Ambleside. That is why you guys need an attorney. Mr. Macuila or HIS attorney would be much more likely to work through someone other than those being affected by this.
Most importantly, if no attorney has been hired, V&M hasn't been contacted and, if you have an HOA, the director of the HOA hasn't been notified, I am shocked that this has appeared in the paper at this point. It's not very smart to tick Mr. Macuila off by outing him in the city newspaper if there is a chance that there is no law requiring he fix the problem. You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar...I do hope the law is on your side, otherwise outing the guy like this might get you nothing more than a middle finger.
So, contact the community developer, find out if you have an HOA and pool your resources with other concerned neighbors and hire an attorney. Those are my suggestions.
Your fellow Ambleside resident, autumnambleside, needed calling out and that's exactly what I did. This story shows the hypocrisy that exists in our country and is tearing it apart.
Autumnambleside, you should think before you type. You don't come on a website expecting that the taxpayers should pay to clean up your streets and then call them "obama types that expect and demand their free handouts who are no class, lazy, irresponsible leeches." You are a hypocrite. Don't come to me for help and with your hand out and refer to me as a lazy, irresponsible leech. You will get NONE of my taxpayer dollars if that is your approach.
Now, I'll ask again since it hasn't been answered. Don't you guys have an HOA?
"Second off when there is debris (logs ,limbs, silt, straw, leaves) on a county (not city) road, which is the case here because that is where it ends up, I believe that the county is responsible for cleaning the road.
Listen, this happened to me every time it rained for longer than a minute. I've paid to have my basement waterproofed and built a retaining wall around the area where the dirt and debris were coming in. My house is worth more than any house at Ambleside so I am not making some "rich versus poor" comment here...I'm just saying rally together, sign a petition requiring Mr. Macuila clean up his mess and take it to the mayor. Don't you guys have a HOA? A director who speaks on the subdivision's behalf? Anything?
And of course I had to see an Obama attack here. What a joke. Listen here's the thing...smallie1 wrote that the county should clean it up. That costs money, people, and the county doesn't have a printing press. The money will come from the tax payers if they cannot legally bill Mr. Macuila. Hey smallie1, do you know autumnambleside? If you do you need to go tell her that seeking county funds to clean up private property is what her party has been calling socialism for the last few months. So apparently autumnambleside is a no class, lazy, irresponsible leech looking for a handout. You don't like socialism, fix the issue yourselves or file suit and force the man to fix his property...But for the love of God, keep Obama and democrats out of this discussion...otherwise you just sound hypocritical..."Oh, I want the county to take money from the taxpayers to clean up this other guy's mess on my street but Obama had better not take money from anybody to fix anything...people need to fix things themselves...except for me, of course." Hypocrites...
We also live in Ambleside and have seen the destruction of the Maciula's "horse farm." They cut down so many trees above us for their "horse trails" that when it rains the water pours down our hill. Our son built us a beautiful rock garden on our hill 2 years ago; we planted lots of bulbs. It was beautiful last spring. Since the trees have been cut down, the water runs straight through the rock garden and destroyed over half of the bulbs.
Question: Why would someone want a horse farm on a hill in a beautiful subdivision instead of in the country on a flatter surface. Beats us.
I couldn't have said it better myself!
My husband and I both get up everyday and go
to our blue collar jobs where we work hard to
make an honest dollar to raise our family. I get sick when I read ignorant remarks like mechille and eric have written. They need to get their facts together before posting comments like these.