Lansing business owners raise drainage issues after repeated flooding on Kalamazoo Street
Business owners are receiving a blunt response from the Ingham County drain commissioner.
LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Business owners along East Kalamazoo Street between Clippert and Homer are getting a blunt response from the Ingham County Drain Commissioner as recent flooding has renewed concerns about drainage issues in the area.
Cole Spaulding of ACE Cleaning and Restoration said flooding on the block has become more frequent.
“It’s become more frequent due to the drains more so than the river,” Spaulding said.
Several businesses, including Steakhouse Philly Bar & Grill, have also voiced frustration on social media, saying the problem appears to have worsened since new storm drains were installed.
“Mr. Drain Commissioner, we’ve been on this corner almost every single day for 59 years. We see with our eyes what happens every rainy day,” the owner of Steakhouse Philly said in an open letter to Ingham County Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
“Every business owner and resident in the area understands the risks of being in a floodplain. Rivers flood, and there are damages. Mother Nature is going to do her thing, and we have to deal with it. We definitely understand that. We went through it twice, first in 1975 and more recently in 2018. But this is different,” the letter said.
Spaulding pointed to back to the work done on Kalamazoo street about five years ago, adding that “whatever they were doing under there seems to be anecdotally what might be wrong.”
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Drain commissioner responds
Speaking to News 10 on Friday, Lindemann responded bluntly to the residents’ concerns, saying the businesses are located in a floodway and should expect flooding when the Red Cedar River rises.
Lindemann told News 10 that the river has “tens of billions of gallons of water that come down on them every time it rains.”
Lindemann said the county’s Montgomery drain project helps manage runoff but cannot stop river flooding.
“They just have to either live with that, have the insurance to pay for it, or move,” he said.
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tim Daman said the chamber plans to send a letter to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners regarding Lindemann’s response as more rain is expected next week.
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