People traveling Hwy 96 through Kirbyville may have noticed David Littlefield, owner of Littlefield Dozer cleaning around and under the Trout Creek bridge yesterday.
ETB spoke with Jasper County Pct 3 Commissioner Willie Stark about the project. "You know that area all around the Auction Barn has always flooded but in these recent storms it's really been bad. We were able to get the money approved for this project. TxDOT did a little clean out around the bridge trying to get the water flowing good. Just to cut down the likelihood to keep it from flooding. So, what David (Littlefield) has been doing is cleaning all that brush from the area, digging it out some and putting the sand on the banks just trying to fortify it some. He worked on the side next to Patrick's Automotive yesterday and next week he will be working on the side next to the Auction Barn."
ETB went to the site yesterday to get some photos and there is a huge change in the area. It's much cleaner than it was before.
Stark continued, "There are some communication lines that the city has on this side of the bridge along with some sewer and water lines so we are limited on what we can do over there so the infrastructure isn't damaged with this project."
The bridge is County property but the city has leased the land until 2038. Trout Creek doesn't run throughout the area. Both the Davis and Boggy Creeks run just outside the city limits where they fork together behind the old Dinner Bell and become Trout Creek
Stark added, "The plan is just to make it flow more efficiently. We've been approved to build some retention ponds to hold some of the water to hopefully prevent some of the flooding in the future. We are going to build one on Bon Ami and I think one at Browndale and another one towards Buna."
