TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents in an east Toledo neighborhood are frustrated after they said a construction company left a huge mess after completing a project.
The city of Toledo is working with E & K Contractors to replace water lines for 23 houses on Arden Place, between Nevada Street and Starr Avenue.
But residents say the company left their mark but in a bad way.
Joe has lived on Arden Place for 18 years and said he sees damage left by the recent construction every day.
"I just want to see this be done, what they tore up, fixed," Joe said.
All of the residents WTOL 11 spoke with declined to provide last names.
Joe and other residents said after the construction company dug up dirt to get to the water lines, they filled it in with dirt without grass seed.
Residents also said there is damage to sidewalks because of construction, with sidewalks completely taken out in some places.
"There's just a lot of ugliness from what they did," said Coletta, a resident.
Coletta and Rita live next to each other, and like Joe, they want something done.
Both said the construction is driving their frustration. And for Coletta, driving is a whole other issue because she has a large chunk missing from her driveway.
"We hit bottom pulling in and out now unless we go over the curb and come up the grass," Coletta said.
Rita's sidewalk used to lead to her reserved handicapped spot. But now, that part of the sidewalk is gone.
"They just filled it in with broken concrete and then covered it with dirt," Rita said. "At that point, it's not level and I had handicapped access. So, it does make it difficult in the area if I want to walk."
Rita said the dirt has brought on another issue because neighborhood cats are defecating in the dirt patches.
"They started to use the area where the dirt is as a litter box," Rita said.
Residents say they have complained to the city about the issues for months but have received no answer as to when the work will be completed.
A city spokesperson provided WTOL 11 with the following statement:
"There were 23 houses on the 400/500 block of Arden Place that required water line replacements due to lead service lines. The replacement work began on the first house on August 2nd and was completed by August 12th.
To work efficiently, the lead lines are replaced first, followed by the contractor returning to complete the restoration work. The contractor handling the job is E & K.
The work on Arden is expected to be completed by the end of October. This week, we sent the contractor out to assess whether we can expedite the work on (Rita's property) due to the resident's needs."
"This used to be a good neighborhood, green grass everywhere," Joe said. "Now all I see is mud and dirt and broken sidewalks and tore off street, and her driveway isn't fixed. It has to get back to normal."