Why is a parked truck pumping poop in downtown Lexington? It’s got to do with a legal fight
A dispute about fixing a broken sewer pipe has escalated into an attempt by the town of Lexington to condemn a downtown business property.
Town officials are pushing to condemn the site on East Main Street in order to gain access to a broken sewer pipe — an issue that has led the town to park a pump truck behind the property for months just to remove sewage from the pipe.
Lexington says it needs access to the site to repair the broken pipe, which the town says is almost 100 years old.
“The sewer line that failed dates back to 1925 and the line can’t be repaired or replaced where it currently is located because it is under a building,” said town spokesperson Laurin Barnes.
Businesses in the area are not experiencing any disruption because the truck, parked in an off-street lot at the site since March 29, has been able to remove sewage from the broken line, she said.
But the town has run into trouble because of a dispute with the property owner, New Brookland Associates.
“Prior to the failure, the Town was seeking to gain an easement from the adjacent property owners to relocate the line,” Barnes said. “However, now the Town is now having to go through condemnation in order to obtain that easement on the property located at 121 and 127 East Main Street, and that is a process that has to go through court.”
The addresses the town seeks to condemn currently contain O’Hara’s Bakery and Cafe and Cho on Main Salon and Boutique. But those businesses should not be affected by the condemnation process, the town said.
The condemnation notice seeks to gain access to a permanent utility easement for each property, totaling 2,850 square feet, as well as another 2,000 square feet for a temporary construction easement. The town offers the property owners compensation of $4,325.
New Brookland Associates is fighting the condemnation in a court filing, claiming there is a “better engineering way to fix the problem of the sewage, but (the town) has elected to place the alternate sewage pipe onto the Plaintiff’s property rather than a downstream property where the gravity feed is much better.”
The suit asks the court to declare Lexington’s interest in New Brookland Associates’ property “arbitrary and capricious.” Calls to a listed number for the property owners and their attorney, Jahue Moore, were not returned prior to publication.
In the meantime, downtown will be dependent on the pump truck to continue to remove sewage from the business district. The town estimates it will cost $500,000 to replace the pipe.
The Lexington County Chronicle quoted a source saying the truck has cost the town “well over $100,000.”
Barnes couldn’t cite a cost for use of the pump truck, but “until we can rectify the issue, it’s something we have to do to maintain service,” she said.
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
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