A storm-triggered sinkhole that opened beneath South Harrison and South streets last week raised fears that someone — possibly a child — could be swept into the collapsed drain, Frankfort Utility Service Board manager Todd Corrie told host Shan Sheridan in an interview Thursday morning on WILO’s Party Line.
Corrie’s appearance on the program covered a summer marked by severe weather, from the sewer collapse to lightning strikes that knocked out power and water across town, along with a look ahead at a wastewater infrastructure project, plans to curb late-night misuse of the city’s lagoons, and preparations for this weekend’s Hot Dog Festival.
Storm sewer collapse triggers sinkhole, safety scare
Corrie said the trouble began Friday evening when roughly two and a half inches of rain fell on the city in under three hours, overwhelming a storm sewer structure that collapsed and opened a sinkhole near South Harrison and South streets. Crews worked the site through the weekend as the hole grew.
“What we were afraid of is that we was gonna lose a child or something down in there,” Corrie told Sheridan, recalling that when a break in the rain came, he found two young men hovering over the opening watching water rush through it.
To secure the site, crews covered the hole with heavy steel plating. “It took four plates, four foot by fifteen foot, to cover the hole up, but then we were safe for the weekend,” Corrie said.
The same storm system brought repeated lightning strikes that knocked out power in three or four areas of the city, including a local church, whose water pump failed Saturday night. “We had no water Sunday morning. So I get on the phone and just say, hey, for those who are coming to church today, bring a gallon of water because we need to fill toilets,” Corrie said, adding that the congregation brought more than enough.
Rates hold steady, but a wastewater rate increase looms
Despite rising costs elsewhere, Corrie said Frankfort utility customers have avoided rate hikes in most categories for years. “For us, we have not had an electric increase in almost nine years now,” he told Sheridan, noting the last water rate increase came five years ago and the last wastewater increase came six years ago.
That is expected to change for wastewater customers, however, as the utility moves forward with a new lift station and force main project running from the 200 West Lift Station to the treatment plant. The project, first agreed to in June 2024, is intended to expand system capacity for future growth and is expected to begin construction in early 2027.
Proactive tree-trimming credited with fewer outages
Corrie also credited a four-year-old contracted tree-trimming program — which proactively identifies trouble spots along power lines rather than waiting for storm damage — with reducing wind-related outages. He said aging sewer infrastructure remains a separate, ongoing issue, particularly homes still connected to century-old materials like Orangeburg pipe or cast iron, which are more vulnerable to root intrusion than modern PVC lines.
Lagoon area targeted for after-dark security upgrades
An algae bloom in the west lagoon pond earlier this summer, caused partly by stormwater and lawn-treatment runoff, has since been treated and cleared, Corrie said. But he told Sheridan that surveillance cameras have also captured unwanted overnight activity at the lagoons, prompting plans for additional security measures after dark.
“Nothing good is gonna happen out there after dark,” Corrie said, adding that a manual gate is already used to close the area during icy winter conditions and that the utility is weighing added cameras and access controls.
Crews prepare for Hot Dog Festival
Looking ahead to this weekend’s Hot Dog Festival, Corrie told Sheridan that utility crews have spent several days preparing power distribution boxes downtown for festival vendors and expect minimal disruption to normal operations unless an unrelated issue arises during the event.
