Old sewer lines in the town of Stanley have been causing a smelly mess for some residents because they periodically leak.

The town has found a way to pay to fix sever problems despite the economy.

Traffic was slow Thursday afternoon along Aylor Grubs Avenue, while crews worked to fix a problem in front of Adrian Greber's house.

"The biggest problem is when the line breaks, the sewage comes up on our yard down in front of the house, and down into a creek," says Greber.

He has dealt with the problem for about six years.

"It's been a constant problem for us and the town. Breaks in the line from poultry trucks going over it and just breaks from old pipe itself," says Greber.

"It would break periodically over once or twice a month sometimes, and we saw the need to replace it. So we went ahead and bid it out for construction," says town manager Terry Pettit.

The project began this week and includes replacing 1,000 feet of new sewer line along Aylor Grubs Avenue.

"After so many leaks in one area, you begin looking at the pipe and saying, 'Well it's not worth fixing again, it's time to replace it,'" says Pettit.

Fortunately, the town was able to find funding for the project in its fiscal budget.

On top of that funding, $100,000 in stimulus money took care of a separate project aimed at keeping excess ground and stormwater out of sewer pipes.

Crews have been fixing the infiltration and inflow problems throughout the town, with a focus on Judy Lane, Hill Top Circle and East Main Street.

"The $100,000 help tremendously. That was a project that we didn't have funding for and the $100,000 saved quite a bit of tax-payer money," says Pettit.

He says the inflow and infiltration rehab kept the town from having to initiate another increase like the recent one that upped water and sewer rates by $2 per month.

Without the upgrade, the town says it would have gone up another $2.