Summer floods and infrastructure among issues broached at Let's Talk Madisonville

At our latest Let's Talk event in Madisonville's Element Eatery, we invited you to come and share your questions, concerns, ideas and solutions so we can turn stories important to you.

For two hours, you shared a series of issues we will work to help make your lives a little easier.

One of the most prominent issues we talked about was the impact of July's flooding and how the city of Cincinnati can better prepare for and respond to similar heavy weather events.

Hounds Town owners Erich and Caren Everett told us they watched as water rose precariously close to the front doors of their business.

"We were really nervous," Caren said.

"We were sitting in our office in Springboro watching our cameras, our outdoor cameras, watching our parking lot fill up and up," Erich added.

WATCH: We chat with everyone during our latest Let's Talk event

They were spared the worst, but dozens of other businesses and homes were filled with either sewage backups or floodwaters.

"My pitch to the city is, why did this happen? Is there a cause? Is there something that can prepare us business owners for something like that," Caren said.

Others, like wheelchair user Darlene Ballew, said she's worried about the quality of deteriorating sidewalks on and around Madison Road.

"They're cracked, like, I mean, holes in them," Ballew said, spreading her fingers apart to show the depth of a hole. "It will be like a dip like this, you drop down, you have to figure out how to get around the holes."

These tips and many more will be the basis for a series of solutions-based reports in the coming days and weeks.