High-end wines, craft beers and unique gifts now share the same space with dehumidifiers, box fans and a leaf blower at The Vine on Main in Sykesville, and last night, Owner Ridia Dearie feared it would flood for the second time in less than a week.
"We had a brief, but heavy storm, and during that time, immediately we noticed that the street was flooding again, which is not normal," said Dearie.
But unlike the flooding, which swamped Baldwin's Station restaurant and a neighboring parking lot on Sunday, this time, the backed up water all pooled at the base of historic Main Street where some town leaders teamed with business owners focused their attention.
"They came to our aid immediately, because the water was going to obviously come back into the shop and they followed the drain to realize that the track work that CSX had just completed last week---they had piled feet of dirt, debris and gravel, rocks blocking the drains," said Dearie.
Justin Naecker of the Firehouse Creamery looked on as the determined team turned the tide with a handful of shovels.
"They came down and dug to find the pipes and it came out like a geyser, and within five minutes, all this water that was starting to get up on the sidewalks and the parking lot was gone,” said Naecker, “So it was clogged... clogged drains."
For her part, Ridia Dearie is thrilled her businesses didn't suffer a second dose of flooding in less than a week, but she now suspects recent work along the tracks may have contributed to the backed up waters twice in a matter of days.
"We've been here 21 years. This has never happened. So we knew it was unusual. I was perfectly happy to blame Mother Nature,” said Dearie, “I understand that, but now that we know exactly why it happened and exactly that CSX had caused it to happen, now we're a little upset."
CSX has a work station in Sykesville, but when we contacted the railway company today, it said the town had not made it aware of any problem with the drains below those tracks.
A spokeswoman did tell us CSX workers routinely check the lines before and after any storms for potential problems.
