SAN ANTONIO — We all had a tough time keeping our lawns green this year. And one south San Antonio man says, almost his entire yard died because a (San Antonio Water System) SAWS contractor broke his irrigation system, then took too long to fix it and with the drought, all his grass died.
Andrew Moreno built his home in the early 70's and has lived there ever since. He had to clear the lot before he could build, then once his home was built he took great pride in planting his trees, landscape and grass, and watered it religiously.
"I had a guy to come check it out at least once a year to make sure everything was working," says Moreno about his irrigation system.
So you can understand why he was so skeptical when a contractor for SAWS had to take down both his chain link and privacy fence, then use part of Moreno's yard to replace a huge water line in the alley.
Moreno says he was told, "Everything we remove we will put back the way it was." But he says he watched, as the 100+ degrees heat and no water turned his yard from plush green...to shriveled, brown grass. Moreno is limited to a rolling walker and could use a water hose to save his grass.
Then he says, once the line was complete in the alley, the construction workers stopped showing up. Eventually they came back and replaced both fences, but still didn't fix his irrigation system. He says no matter how many times he spoke with the foreman on the job, they never stuck to their word. That's when he called KENS.
The day we showed up, so did the construction workers. They were already working on the privacy fence, when we arrived. The forman agreed to talk with us, but he wouldn't go on camera. He told us he would bring in new top soil and lay sod to replace Mr. Moreno's yard, and it would be done in a week.
We went back to Moreno's home about 10 days later and sure enough there was new sod spread across his yard and the sprinkler system was up and running, and both fences looked like new.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our new series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number is call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.