TAYLOR MILL, Ky. — Bill Hall is worried he soon won’t be able to live in the place he’s called home for decades.
The creek that runs behind Hall’s property on Holds Branch Rd. has gotten much deeper and has crept much closer to his home than when he bought the place in the late '60s.
And it only gets worse when it rains. Hall said the creek moves like a train, tearing up everything that gets in its way.
That includes the riverbank, which the city attempted to reinforce with rock baskets in 1997. Hall would later spend $10,000 on railroad ties, he said, trying to do the same. Those lasted until March 11, 2019, when the creek at last swept them away and swelled even higher.
WCPO first spoke to Hall in April 2019. Since then, the city has applied for a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. City Administrator Brian Haney said officials are looking at bids to fix the wall on the bank, but no plans have been set to fix the problem.
“I don’t want $4, $5, or a million. I want my wall fixed. Their wall fell down, and took mine with it,” Hall said.
The city put up these rock baskets to try to enforce the bank in 1997, but they've since deteriorated and washed away.
Hall, 80, said he and his wife of 58 years don’t want to move, but he’s afraid they’re running out of options.
“We don’t want to move, but we will. But we may have to. It’s getting worse and worse,” he said.
New developments nearby have changed the creek's landscape over the years, according to Hall and his neighbor, Greg Hehman.
“At the top of this hill there are 100 homes,” Hehman said. “They were built in the late '90s, early 2000s. No retention pond was put in at the time they were built. Nothing has been done to address the water.”
Hehman said he had to demolish one of his properties after it flooded.
“The house was uninhabitable,” he said. “Just like I believe Mr. Hall’s house is going to be before long.”
Hehman said he has put in additional drainage, but a nearby sewer line is clogged.
“It shouldn’t be my responsibility for the city to say it’s a private line, when it goes into their bridge abutment,” Hehman said. “I don’t understand it.”
