Princeton town leaders looking to fix constant flooding problems

Businesses on South Pine Street say these storm drains can not keep up with rain even in smaller storms — let alone the heavy rain they saw Monday night.

But the town’s mayor is hoping these problems are soon a thing of the past.

The concrete is drying out inside Tippy Toes Dance Studio, where tiny dancers typically tap their toes on vinyl flooring that got soaked when three inches of rain rolled in overnight.

Leslie Ingram owns the studio and says conditions inside are suboptimal.

“It’s a lot of water in your building unless you have an indoor pool," she joked.

It’s the third time in five years — dating back to Hurricane Matthew — that Ingram has had to rip up the wood floors that she elevated with pool noodles, fearing more trouble.

“Just upset," she said. "I didn’t know if I could to this a third time. It’s very testing.”

The problem, she says, are storm drains out front on South Pine Street.

Princeton Mayor Don Rains says they are looking to find a way to avoid this from happening.

“As this community grows, we certainly don’t want to have these problems in the future," Rains said.

“It’s extremely exhausting to keep hearing it’s going to happen," Ingram said.

It’s been in the planning phase for more than a year but is expected to break ground next week.

“Things unfortunately don’t move fast when you are dealing with federal and state programs, as well as railroad issues," Rains said.

As they wait for relief, neighbors are helping neighbors to clean up.

“That’s just what we do in this community, we bond together,” Ingram said.

The mayor says the project to fix the drains should be complete in under a year.