COLUMBUS, Ga.- Lewis Bunn has owned property off Warm Springs Road for more than 20 years. For some of that time, his house has felt like more of a swamp than a home.

“If it’s real light rain, we don’t have a problem. But if it’s heavy rain, we got all kinds of problems,” Bunn said.

He says the abandoned car wash next door has draining issues, and that causes water to spill over into his property. It also seeps into a nearby storage building that he rents out. That’s where James Barfield keeps his auto parts, that are now wet. “Well every time it rains, it floods out, then it floods to the building. My building in there’s soaked,” he told us.

Bunn says his insurance doesn’t cover that damage, so he has to find a way to reimburse Barfield for the damages. But water isn’t the only issue. He says anytime there comes a heavy rainfall, the rain water will travel from the property onto his, bringing a lot of trash with it.

Sometimes that trash includes needles and other unpleasant items. “There are dead animals in these drains right here. On the other end down there, I’ve seen two snakes down there yesterday,” he said while pointing toward the abandoned car wash.

Bunn has experienced these issues for years and says he made call after call to the city, with no luck. He then took other measures. “I called 9-1-1 and they sent a police officer out here. A young lady came out here, and she was just as nice as she could be. She said ‘I don’t blame you,’ she said, ‘You need to have something done.”

He said the officer called city officials and left a message for them to contact Mr. Bunn.

We called Public Works to see if they are planning to fix the drainage issues. They didn’t have the staff available on the holiday to look into it. We also reached out to Codes and Inspections and left a message. We’ll be sure to update you as soon as we hear back from the city.