Jackson Free Press

After eight months of living with the smell of sewage in their apartment, a couple living on Sage Street in Jackson finally got relief earlier this month.

In June, this newspaper brought attention to the difficulty Sarah Pittman, 84, and her husband, Jesse, 75, continued to face after repeatedly reaching out to the City of Jackson to help rectify sewage leakage beside their house, which has made their living condition unbearable. A Jackson-based group, the Real People's Assembly, also championed their cause based on Jackson Free Press reporting.

"It's taken care of now," Sarah Pittman told the Jackson Free Press Monday. "They came to fix it."

"I am feeling much better because I don't have to smell that scent all night and all day," she added. "It took them eight months to do it. I am very happy because now I don't have to smell that smell."

Extra Funding For Sewer Repairs

The city’s sewer problem has been a significant concern over many years. Last month, the City of Jackson approved $2.5 million in contracts to private companies to rectify problems in nine locations in the sewage system.

Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba announced $3 million in extra funding in the 2020-2021 budget for sewer repairs at a press conference Friday. He said the funds are in addition to the $3.5 million set aside from Siemens settlement.

"We know that the residents of our city have been suffering over some time now from a failing infrastructure that is decaying under our roads and in many parts of our community," Lumumba said. "Sadly, our struggle with our water, sewer and billing system has led to an inability over time to meet the need of our decaying infrastructure."

Interim Public Works Director Charles Williams said that it will be a significant undertaking to rectify the sewage system's myriad problems fully and that the end is far from being in sight.

"We are doing work throughout different parts of the city in order to address multiple issues that have been delayed for some time and not been responded to," Williams said. "These are just some short-time measures."

"Some of our long-term measures will be to utilize additional funding from different funding sources to address our more widespread holistic sewer issues within our city, and those (sources of) funding will be identified at a later point (after working) through that process," he added. "We do continue to ask for patience from our residents as they continue to deal with our failing sewer infrastructure."

The mayor also seeks the citizens' patience and understanding as the City works through the myriads of infrastructural problems.

"The overall message we want to convey is that the administration is not tone-deaf to the concerns of our residents," he said. "We have looked at our failing infrastructure, whether its issues with sewer or roads we have seen over the last few years that we have more projects underway that we have seen in years prior, but there is still so much work to be done, and so we are far from satisfied."

The mayor said that his administration is working to secure funding for more direly needed projects. "We are not only looking internally, but we are looking at external resources that can help us in the fight to repair our infrastructure for our residents," he said.

Ongoing Projects

The mayor’s press conference, held at the intersection of Woodrow Wilson Avenue and Prosperity Street, was partly to showcase a completed sewer-repair project there.

"We had to repair an aging sewer line that is damaged and is causing sewer to back up on Prosperity Street," Williams said. "We've also got some issues that we need to address on the south side of Woodrow Wilson. Work will begin probably sometime next week."

"When we have isolated areas that have collapsed, within the right-of-way or within the street, we are also looking at other areas outside the perimeter, and we are trying to clean those areas that also can be contributing to the sewer that is backing up in our residents’ homes" he added.

The interim director said the City is working on different sewer line projects across Jackson.

"We'll be working with our contractors to address the other issues that have already been approved by the council," he said.

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.