WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Squish, squash, slish, slosh—that's the sound of the Earth under your feet as you walk across a marsh-covered yard in The Stafford subdivision.
Halloween gives people an excuse to transform their homes with the seasonal changes, but what if you have yard problems getting in the way of your creativity?
One Warner Robins couple isn't letting anything — even standing water — get in their way.
After six months of reaching out to the city for help, they were finally able to catch the utility department's attention with the help of 13WMAZ.
"It's kinda frustrating," Niles Bousselot said. "What are our tax dollars paying for?"
Bousselot spends time at Ginger Wehunt's home in The Stafford often because he likes to help her out.
He said Wehunt rents the property and they moved into the home in January.
One day in March, he said he came by to help her mow the lawn.
But, because of how wet the grass was and how wild the grass had grown, he had to stop before he could even start.
"I noticed the yard was soggy and I asked her about it and she said I hadn't noticed it, so I popped the water cover off and it was full of water," he said.
In the weeks leading up to Halloween, nobody's drained the swamp.
"I understand that they're busy, they got a lot going on with this stuff, but it just seems like this is a long time to wait to get something resolved, like this, and have the yard this soggy for this long," Bousselot said.
So, they made lemonade with their lemons, or a swamp out of the swamp.
"We thought about caution tape to make sure people don't walk on the swampy yard," Bousselot said. "That was the first idea, and we went from there."
Surrounded by caution tape stapled to wooden sticks, a skeleton appears to cry out in pain as an alligator chomps on its behind underwater. It's besieged by inflatable dragons. Some people may say it's comparable to scenes from Shrek.
It's garnered a lot of attention from neighbors, people driving by and even on social media.
The determining factor over whose responsibility it is to resolve the marsh issue is the water meter box.
According to the city of Warner Robins, that's the boundary line. If the issue in your yard falls within the edge of your side of the property, you must resolve the issue. In this case, a plumber would have to have been hired.
However, if it's on the city's side, then it's the utility department's responsibility to fix it.
"I had her monitor her water bill to make sure it wasn't going up," Bousselot said. "No change on it. It was the same month to month, so I knew the leak wasn't on her side. It was definitely on the city's side."
The decorations surrounding the swamp have piqued many people's curiosity, but it didn't catch the city's attention until 13WMAZ reached out Monday morning.
Upon our request to speak to someone with the city who could talk about the resources available for others in similar situations, a crew from the utility department was sent to Wehunt's residence.
Warner Robins Water Supervisor Joey McDuffie said the only record he had of her residence's issue was from an email sent Oct. 3.
He said the only note in the email was that was the day she flagged a utility truck driving through her neighborhood to inspect her yard.
Bousselot said they put flags to mark that it was the city's responsibility to tend to the area, but not much was done to fix the root of the problem after that.
First, the crew inspected the area and determined their plan of action.
Then, they dug holes in the ground and scooped the excess water out with buckets.
Once they were able to see the polyethylene pipe, they noticed a pinhole that was leaking water.
"We've got several leaks in here," McDuffie said, motioning to the rest of the neighborhood. "It's gonna basically be the same as this one, just probably a pinhole in that polyethylene pipe. They just gotta be dug up and repaired along the same fashion this right here leak was."
After they fixed the pipe, they refilled the ground with dry soil and leveled it out.
McDuffie said his department has been backed up because of staffing shortages.
However, he says they are not ignoring anyone's problems. Rather, they tend to every individual issue based on the gravity of the problem.
McDuffie said people can notify his department of their water issues two different ways: the best way, he says, is to fill out a request online.
"The people here, I believe, called our office," he said. "Callers normally get a secretary who take down general information, like your name, address and the problem you're having. Then, they pass it on to us. From there, we can go out and inspect each property and determine the issue's priority level."
The water department categorizes issues between one and three. An issue rated one is considered an emergency that needs immediate attention, and three is an issue with low-risk potential.
"Just trying to get around to it as quickly as we can," he said. "Some of 'em may take longer than others, but we just try to get to it as quickly as we can."
Under normal circumstances, McDuffie said he has four crews.
Since the pandemic, however, he only has two. He says he's grateful he was able to hire four new crewmen last week.
McDuffie said he is especially in need of heavy equipment operators.
"I know they're backed up but when they get here, they do the job and get it done right, so that's good," Bousselot said.
If you're interested in applying to the city of Warner Robins Utility Department, you can apply online.