Lora Ott loves her new condo on Madison 's East Side, but she 'd love it more if she could actually get to it after a big rain storm.

She can 't because heavy rain -- or the 100 inches of melting snow from this past winter -- leaves her yard and street looking like Lake Mendota.

"There was pretty much no access to my home during the winter and, at times, no access into my driveway, " she told SOS.

Ott, who lives on the corner of Home and Mayfair avenues, said she left two phone messages with the city 's Streets Division and sent one e-mail to the city 's Report-a-Problem service, but they weren 't returned.

A small measure of relief came on April 25, when she said she called police because she thought someone had broken into her home -- luckily, it was a false alarm -- and they called the Streets Division, which brought out some barricades and pumped away some of the water.

"The mail carrier tells me it has been a problem forever but it has been much worse since the city resurfaced and put sidewalks in on Mayfair, " she said.

The mail carrier 's right, but that doesn 't mean Ott might not be stuck with a bill to fix part of the problem.

First, what the city 's doing:

On June 3, the City Council is expected to award a contract for about $210,000 worth of work to alleviate street flooding at problem sites across the city, according to Mike Dailey, principal engineer in charge of storms and sanitary sewers.

The Home and Mayfair project, estimated to cost about $5,000, is one of six, he said. In late June or early July, workers will start extending a storm sewer under Mayfair northwest to the intersection with Home, where a storm inlet will be installed.

Dailey agreed there are long-standing drainage problems on Home -- which does not have curbs and gutters -- but also admitted that adding curbs and gutters and doing other work on Mayfair made the problem worse.

The city is doing its part to fix what it is responsible for, but Ott and the person who lives in the other half of her duplex will likely have to do theirs.

Dailey said a drain pipe under a walkway at the residence and a driveway culvert are clogged or broken, so water is backing up into the yard and street. He estimated it would cost from $1,000 to $1,500 to fix them.

"These unimproved streets are very, very difficult to get drainage on, " he said.

He added that residents often don 't want the city to improve the street because they have to pay for it, but they still "want it to drain like there were curbs and gutters. "

Ott wasn 't happy to hear she and her neighbor may well have to pay to fix the culvert and the drain pipe.

But she was pleased the city plans to extend the storm sewer and put in a storm grate.

She also said she 'd be in favor of having Home street improved -- just not in a year when she 's already looking at a bill to fix the culvert and drain pipe.

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