Chris Reed
Mayor Patrick Cooney and Development Director Mary Kay Costello at Monday's heated council meeting in Fairview Park.
Some 185 residents in Fairview, a city of 17,026, reported massive flooding damage and sewer debris — yes, what you're thinking— following two record-breaking storms that blew across Northeast Ohio in late August.
No deaths were reported, but longtime homeowners, some with three decades in the city, were quick to lambast Fairview's government for allowing what they claim is the worst water and sewage overspill in their entire time as residents.
Shoddy catch basins, misuse of sandbags, vague surveys and studies befuddled homeowners who, at the very least, are dealing with thousands of dollars in carpet, appliance and foundation repairs.
Conflicts came to a head last Monday evening during a three-and-a-half-hour committee of the whole meeting that seemed more like a shouting match than a FEMA-type storm debrief.
"The first step in any problem is admitting that you have a problem," Fairview Park Mayor Patrick Cooney said. Dressed in a brown suitcoat and striped tie, glasses on forehead, Cooney spoke as if he hadn't slept in 24 hours. "I've acknowledged that there is a problem in our sewer system since I became the mayor. We've been working on that since I've been the mayor."
Fairview Park, like its neighbors Rocky River and North Olmsted, is no stranger to the dangers of storm water overflow, Cooney noted. Its pump station on West 227th St. hasn't seen major overhauls since the turn of the century.
In his mea culpa, Cooney attempted to instill a calm atmosphere despite anticipating a wave of resentment. Like Development Director Mary Kay Costello, he touted the installation of a new sewer jetter, a machine used to scrub sanitation and storm lines, last December, along with an upcoming survey of the system's ins and outs to be wrapped up later this year. A flow monitoring study by the Rocky River Treatment Plant, of which Fairview is a member, will, Cooney said, accompany that survey.
"We want to rent a truck to cover more area" of debris clean up, Cooney said, which "is a slow and tedious process." Cooney proceeds to check a text message. "Sorry," he said to attendees.
"Yeah, that's really professional," one attendee said.
"Yeah, welcome to Fairview," another said.
Chris Reed
Kevin Stanley, a Fairview resident on West 227th, speaks at Monday's meeting. "If I talk to another neighbor that has poop flowing in their basement...," he said.
"I've been trying to get in touch and get answers for a long time now," resident Kevin Stanley told Council. He attacked what seemed to be Fairview's failed use of stop gap measures: "I don't care whether it's sandbags, I don't care what you use—do something to stop that water from flowing defrom those drains on the corners."
He added, full-voiced, "If I talk to another neighbor that has poop flowing in their basement..."
"Mr. Stanley, can you please be courteous in your comments?" a councilperson said.
"He is being courteous," a resident argued.
Stanley referenced Cooney's apparent rudeness. "He's trying to answer a phone in the middle of my questions!"
Jim Adams, a Fairview Park resident of 34 years, was among the line of peeved homeowners. He told Scene in an interview Thursday that, like others, the flooding from storms in the past two years—way after Hurricane Sandy in 2014—were more precarious and intrusive.
Just in 2021, after one summer rainstorm, Adams ripped out his ruined Berber carpeting in his basement after "a couple thousand dollars" in damage. He turned his head at flood insurance, seeing it as too expensive, but considered it after August's storms.
After all, Adams said, his home value is severly at stake.
"Probably in the last two years, $8,000 to $10,000," he said. "I mean, come on. Our property values are dropping because of the flooding. And it doesn't bother them at all."
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