Community adding dirt, rocks to Wildcat Dr. in effort to improve road

Neighbors are turning a muddy mess into a passable road, one truckload at a time.

Led by a construction worker, the community has dumped 42 loads of dirt and rocks to fix their private street on Wildcat Drive in Lee County.

This is all in an effort to make the road drivable when flooding hits the area.

It’s hard to imagine, but last week, Wildcat Drive looked more like a river than it did a road with feet of water making it impassable for neighbors.

Thursday morning, trucks loads of dirt were dumped on Wildcat Drive to harden this road to help drivers get in and out the next time it rains.

It was a rag-tag construction crew on Wildcat Drive. You got Tobey Klebs smoothing the freshly laid dirt using something old, Don Rainey on his neighbor’s tractor and Josh Doxtater leading the charge.

Using donated equipment, time and money, Doxtater coordinated 42 truckloads, 18 cubic yards each, of dirt and rocks to Wildcat Drive to improve it.

But the private road was flooded and unpassable after Tropical Storm Debby. It looked more like a river than a road, leaving most neighbors trapped.

“We have never been this wet in the 10 years that I’ve lived here,” Klebs said.

The county can’t use taxpayer dollars on a private road. There are other options, like neighbors paying for paving through their taxes. Nonetheless, they decided to take a different approach together.

“That’s the way we all work out here. We help each other out, try to do the best we can. If they can’t donate or they can’t get out and work, they’ll bring us out sandwiches. They’ll bring us out cold drinks and stop us. It’s a pretty amazing place,” Rainey said.

It’s not only neighbors who are donating. We were told that someone donated an excavator, and a couple of contracting and hauling companies are helping out.

Now, will this prevent any future flooding? No.

Doxtater said he plans on flooding, but the rocky base in the center means when water fills the road, neighbors will need to get to the middle and drive straight through.