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OLD COLORADO CITY, COLO. -- Flood concerns continue to grow after the Waldo Canyon Fire and now some residents have asked the city to take action.

Residents along 31st Street in Old Colorado City said they were concerned about a drainage ditch that flows through their neighborhood.

"Over the last three years I've noticed that the drainage that goes down the middle of 31st has become more and more overgrown," Mazie Baalman, a Pleasant Valley resident, said.

Baalman said the ditch was full of weeds and grass and was concerned it wouldn't do its job during a heavy rain.

"To me it would be really hard for a lot of water to drain through there, and if it had anything in the water it would get caught on all the greenery," she said.

There are several homes located next to the ditch, and some residents said they were concerned their homes would flood.

Baalman, along with others, voiced their concerns to the city, and the city listened.

"Originally what happened is that some folks who are attached to the ditch had vetted the idea of letting the grasses in the ditch grow and create a new eco-system, and that idea took legs, and the city allowed that to happen," Tim Leigh, City Councilmember, said.

But after the fire concerns changed.

"It was decided that the undergrowth was creating more of a flood hazard than the aesthetic was warranted, so folks over here on the west side decided they wanted to have the ditch cleaned out, and we were able to get that done for them," Leigh said.

Monday the city began mowing the ditch and removing some of the debris.

"It was a legitimate concern to get this ditch cleaned out so the waterway is freed up," Leigh said.

But Leigh said the concerns go much deeper than the ditch.

"We have great infrastructure and stormwater issues facing Colorado Springs, probably on order of magnitude of $1 to $1.5 billion worth of legitimate money we have to spend to get our infrastructure and to get our drainage in a good condition," Leigh said.

The ditch is cracked and beyond repair, but Leigh said there is no money to replace it.

"Several years ago when we had the stormwater fee slash tax, whatever you want to call it, this was a project that was being teed up to be redone, and this was probably an $8 to $10 million project. Well now since we don't have that revenue coming in anymore there are no funds available to improve this ditch," he said.

Leigh said until a solution on how to solve infrastructure issues in the city is found there are no plans to come back and replace the ditch.

"Now we have a ditch, we don't have a waterway, and hopefully the ditch does its job and keeps any flood from occurring or going anywhere else in the neighborhood," he said.