MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Maurice Chism speaks for his neighborhood: They’ve been dealing with a problem — a deep problem.
“That’s the top of the street here, it shows 7 feet deep, and you can hear water here also.”
Yes, you read that correctly. He used his measuring tape to show us the 7-foot hole that formed next to the sidewalk, near his home off Spottswood.
Chism said he initially called MLGW about six months ago, and he’s called the city.
A crew came and put a sign up four months ago, but the hole just keeps getting deeper.
“It’s going to get deeper because of the rain. The rain keeps coming in and washing it away; it’s going to eventually cave in otherwise.”
His main concern is the children. Sign or not, it’s a safety hazard.
“I have seen some of the kids up the street there playing around it, and I had to stop them, you know, and I can’t watch them all the time ’cause I work, and that’s why I’m calling you all about it so we can get MLGW out here to come out and fix this.”
MLGW showed up quicker than we might’ve thought. Less than five minutes after we talked to Chism, a MLGW vehicle cruising the neighborhood stopped.
Neighbors told us they had recently complained to the utility about low water pressure. The MLGW employee told us he was at the spot to check water meters.
He didn’t know about the hole and said he planned to turn in a report for it.
Late Thursday afternoon we heard back from MLGW. They told us they researched the problem and it’s not their work to fix.
We also reached out to the City of Memphis about the sinkhole. A spokesperson told us they didn’t have any records of a call to the location but did say city crews will investigate the street cavity and perform a dye test to determine the source.
