Right smack dab in the middle of the Gniadek's backyard lies an unsightly thing: a manhole.
“They literally put like a cement rim. They had to build all of that…and then put the cover on top. So none of that was there before,” Alissa Gniadek says.
Last April, Omaha Public Works say crews with the Sewer Maintenance Division dug a hole to create access to the underground sewer lines near the homeowner’s house in the Elkhorn area.
The mother of two says the department covered the hole, but returned the next day.
"A guy just said, We're back. And I said, OK, let me know if you need anything. And then I left to go run some errands,” Gniadek says. “When I came back there was a manhole. No one ever said it was going to be there or anything."
With an energetic toddler and newborn in the house, the family says they want it gone for safety reasons.
Gniadek says the city told her they would return to cover it up.
However, a year has gone by since crews first came out.
Since last spring, the homeowners have reached out to see if the city could cover the manhole.
But she says they receive a different answer each time they call.
“I just want to know where it stands. Like basically I just assumed it was still happening like it just got pushed and then she was like there's no record of this. There's no record that it needs to be fixed."
For this mother, she says she does not mind the manhole, but she does want it covered up.
“That's how it was for the last 14 years,” Gniadek says. “Now all of a sudden it has to be raised?”
