Resident urges county action after repeated blowouts on Rector drain

Cody Light, a resident at 9800 North County Road 525 West in Gaston, told the Delaware County Drainage Board on Aug. 13 that repeated failures in the Rector county drain have left about four acres of his ground unusable after heavy spring rains. “I’ve had issues with it since I moved there,” Light said, recounting a major blowout the county repaired on June 1, 2022, and additional failures in subsequent years.
The board’s surveyor staff told Light they had inspected flagged depressions after his calls and that contractor Brad Butler has been assigned to the repairs. “He’s got it. It’s right on his list,” the surveyor said, adding the contractor will “reshoot it” with a transit and put in extra plastic where the line was unstable. The staff also said parts of the tile route run under wooded swamp and through goods owned by Greg Cox and that some of the line is an older 18-inch clay tile that may require televising (a scope) to identify root intrusion or collapse.
Light described that tile laid through the woods appears to run “uphill” in places and said past private work using unmarked equipment may have altered grades. He said the pipe was sometimes “about half full” when flowing and that he continued to experience multi‑day surface flooding in spring rains. The surveyor acknowledged communication and access problems and told Light the best time to map and locate the tile would be in the fall when foliage is down and work crews can trace the outlet at the daylight.
Board staff also agreed to explore a service improvement Light suggested: a digital submission form on the county website so residents can file complaints about tile blowouts, logjams and drain problems. “We’ve kinda did a lot of more stuff on the web this year, and that seems like something that could be very easily put on there,” the surveyor said, noting GIS already maintains many digital forms.
The surveyor described the stretch as a candidate for eventual reconstruction because it crosses several wooded swales and older tile, but said short-term work will include a transit survey, targeted plastic repairs and, if needed, televising the line to find blockages. No formal reconstruction plan or funding schedule was approved at the meeting.
Light and other residents also raised the county’s follow-up practices, saying calls had sometimes gone unanswered or been relayed incompletely through office staff. The surveyor apologized for communication gaps and said crews planned to return to the field as weather and crop access permitted.
The board did not take formal action on the Rector drain at the meeting but directed staff to keep the repair on the contractor’s list, to consider televising the tile where indicated and to consult GIS about a digital reporting form. Those are implementation directions rather than formal votes.