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Church That Flooded In The Spring Has More Problems With Water

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) - One westbound lane of Highway 285 just east of Clarkson Street will be closed Tuesday to dig down and shut off a water line that won't stop leaking in Cherry Hills Village.

Discussions of a fix have been going on for weeks between the City of Englewood Utilities Department and Sanctuary Christian Fellowship church, but no deal has been made to pay for or fix the waterline under the highway.

"The service line in question is inside a larger pipe which is directing the water away from the street section," said Tom Brennan, the Englewood Director of Utilities.

There's no danger of a sink hole to the highway.

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CBS4's Jeff Todd talks with church spokeswoman Hannah Sagehorn (credit: CBS)

"There's a lot of water pouring out, there's a lot of water and mud everywhere. The Dragons Den is getting the brunt of the damage right now," said Hannah Sagehorn.

The church has seen water damage recently. In June the bottom floor of the sanctuary flooded after weeks of rain. The congregation was even forced outside for one Sunday service. The area of their property that's affected by the water line leak is near a community meeting space called the Dragon's Den.

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Water and mud from the leaking pipe (credit: CBS)

"I think that is a concern. We have a team of guys working right now with the City of Englewood," Sagehorn said.

But the city says they've not seen the work come fast enough.

"This property is responsible for their service line, they're responsible to repair it if it leaks from the main all the way to their structure. We had thought they were moving forward with repairs. We were contacted by an attorney on Friday that basically stated they're not moving forward," said Brennan.

Some people CBS4 spoke with said the city should be responsible because the property is not a commercial space but a residential one. The city disagrees saying it services a commercial area.

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Flooding at a church in spring of 2015 (credit: CBS)

"Now that we're at a stalemate, tomorrow we're going to excavate it at the main and shut it off so they won't have water service after tomorrow," said Brennan. "They're in violation of three parts of the code."

Brennan says the property owner hasn't repaired the leak, the piping in question is not up to code, and there's no accessible curb stop which property owners are responsible for.

Sagehorn didn't have specifics on the church's plans to move forward with any type of fix.

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.

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