NEW ORLEANS — Jackie Jenkins Jr. moved to Debore Drive in November. A few weeks later he realized the backyard next door was overgrown and parts of the shed seemed broken.
“The back of the yard is like it’s grass and trees higher than two times my height and there’s possums and other stuff crawling on top of the patio or the car port here,” Jenkins Jr. said.
He submitted a 311 request back in December.
While waiting for someone to check out the home next door, construction began on his street.
They had dug a hole from sidewalk to sidewalk. He was told the construction was first being done by a private contractor and then handed off to sewerage and water board.
“You come outside and you can’t just leave the house, we don’t want to mess up the grass by driving over it completely all the time. So we was cautious of when we leave the house,” Jenkins Jr. said.
He was fed up and tried to contact his Councilman Eugene Green. After a back and forth with the Councilman, the half of the construction hole in front of his home, was filled in on May 19th. He still had not heard any updates about his neighbor's home.
Jenkins Jr. then contacted WWLTV. He was frustrated that half the street was still unfinished and no one had checked on the property next door.
We reached out to Councilman Green’s office, the city, and Sewerage and Water Board. Green’s office told WWLTV they had once again reached out to SWB. According to them, S&WB had to wait at least 72 hours after the first pour to finish filling in the street. It had already been 5 days.
The day after we first spoke with Jenkins, the street was filled.
“They were there the next morning. It didn’t even take an hour and a half, two hours,” Jenkins Jr. told us this week. “It’s much better. It’s better for everyone the mail lady, the ups man everybody can use the street.”
They are still waiting for the cones to be removed.
We also contacted the city about the home next to Jenkins. They said no one had flagged the property for the Department of Code enforcement, but the Department would now expedite the inspection. Tuesday, they told us an inspection was scheduled for the next day.
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