NATCHEZ — Nearly 13 years after a group of concerned Buckner Avenue residents reported their drainage problems to city officials, relief is finally in sight.

Crews are working on the street’s drainage as part of the North Natchez Drainage Project, but the city’s work to address the problem has been slow, residents Daniel Young and his son James Young say.

“It’s been way overdue,” James Young said.

James Young has lived in his house for 27 years, and said he has had drainage problems for as long as he can remember. He has even dug a trench in his yard to drain water.

Daniel Young said crews have made it past his house, and he is very happy with their work.

“You can hear that water going through the culverts; it’s flowing really nicely.”

James Young said he is happy his mother no longer has to “wade through water” to get out of his parents’ house after it rains.

“Whenever anyone would go to leave the house, they would have to pull off their shoes and wade through the water,” he said.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, in whose ward Bucker Avenue sits, said the drainage issues that spurred the North Natchez Drainage Project originated on Buckner.

“The problem started at Buckner,” Mathis said. “That’s where it was originally reported to us in 2000.”

Mathis said the then Natchez Board of Aldermen and Mayor Butch Brown made a promise to the people on Buckner that they would take care of the problem.

Finding a solution for the problem stalled for a while, Mathis said. The city continued to be plagued by drainage issues that resulted in sinkholes, including one in front of the post office on Canal Street.

City Engineer David Gardner proposed funding for the project through U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Infrastructure and Resource Protection and Development Program.

After struggling to find the necessary city money to match the Corps’ contribution, the city eventually got the project moving.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed in three years but has stretched nearly 11 years because funding from the Corps of Engineers has taken so long to secure because of budget cuts.

Because of the delay, the cost of the project increased, Gardner said.

The city’s engineering department, Gardner said, was also able to save costs by using in-kind services, and most recently redesigning the most recent phase of the project.

“That has really been the main reason we have not had to go out and borrow extra funds,” he said.

The city also received last year a $250,000 grant for the project funded by the Mississippi Disaster Recovery Fund. The grant is specifically for the Hurricane Gustav disaster recovery.

Mathis said getting relief to Bucker Avenue residents has been a long, but a worthwhile journey.

“We just had to work and plow through it, and now it’s finally getting to those residents who had to live through West Nile with water sitting and have a horrible situation,” Mathis said. “I’m just really elated, and I’m hoping once that end is completed, we’ll have a natural flow of water where water doesn’t stop anywhere.”

Although Buckner Avenue was where the problem initiated, the project had to be started downstream, Gardner said, and worked back up to Buckner.

Buckner sits at a lower point than surrounding streets, so water from Parker, Union and Commerce streets drain to Buckner, Mathis said.

Mathis said she appreciated the patience the Buckner residents have showed over the last several years.

“They have labored through here with us,” Mathis said. “A lot of people would give up faith in you.”

Resident James Young said waiting wasn’t easy.

“Yes, indeed, it’s been tough,” he said.

But some of the original residents who first came to the city asking for help did not live to see the work on Buckner Avenue begin. James and Leontina Knowles, Mathis said, were some of the first residents to meet with city officials about drainage on Buckner.

“It’s really heartbreaking,” Mathis said.

Gardner said he is very happy to see the project coming to an end

“I’m happy for all the residents out there. We’ve gotten to know a lot of them, we’ve heard their concerns, and are happy they’re finally seeing what they’ve been waiting for,” Gardner said. “I’m very happy it’s coming to an end.”

Resident Audrey M. Jenkins said she is happy that she and her husband Lawrence will soon no longer have to jump over the standing water in front of their house that collects after it rains.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” Audrey Jenkins said. “Words cannot express. When they get through with it, it’s just going to be so good.”