Grant Saretsky built a home 15 years ago in Lake Newell Resort with the intent of moving in when he retired.
However, he is now concerned about what he believes is water damage from an adjacent culvert.
“We have damage to the stucco. There’s an insulation finish system, so there’s four inches of Styrofoam on there. You can see it’s cracking above the window and it’s pulling the insulation finish system down. Plus, the driveway is also being pulled down with the movement of the soil and (the ditch beside the house) being wet all the time,” said Saretsky.
As a result, he’s requesting the County of Newell make changes to the culvert by raising it up to create what he believes will be better flow.
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“I’m pretty sure it would stop it from getting worse,” he said.
The County of Newell isn’t dismissing his concerns, however their director of municipal services, Mark Harbicht, says the water level is minimal.
“What we’ve observed is there’s an insignificant amount of water in that ditch that isn’t a concern to us or affecting private property,” said Harbicht.
Because of this, the county is concerned a full construction effort on the culvert could risk wasting tax dollars.
“To raise the culvert, we then lose cover on the road or we’re going to have to build the road up, which affects the intersection with the adjacent road. The benefit to doing that is probably for very little gain and based on the risk, that’s where we see that it’s not warranted at this time,” said Harbicht.
But for Saretsky, the thought of losing his significant investment is concerning.
“In 2009 when I built this, between my sweat equity, I don’t know what that would have added up to because I did a lot of this work myself, I spent $525,000 to build this home.”
He says he’ll continue petitioning on behalf of the security of his retirement property.
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