You might think it would be difficult to keep a neighborhood clean when you have a dirt road in the mix but some homeowners say it really wasn't a problem until school started again.

A dirty cloud hangs over the area of 16th and Jaynes twice a day. Students can get a taste of life in the dust bowl years but parent and homeowner Jeannie Lade is tired of living history.

She says, "I'd like to have it paved but I know they're not going to do that."

East of 16th, Jaynes street is a rocky road and twice a day parents drive it to drop off or pick up kids from Sherman Elementary. The street by the school is one way and that unpaved road is the best way to circle around.

For safety, OPS officials say it's necessary to route parents one way past the school.

Parent Tammy Bronston says, "They all have to come around this way and then there's a traffic jam and you can't get through this way."

So parents and bus drivers have little choice but stir up neighbors in 11 homes along the unpaved street.

Bob Coleman waters the street in front of his house.

"I do this so we can breathe," he says.

The city would pave the street if Bob and his neighbors, most of them retired, paid thousands of dollars toward the cost.

Coleman says, "You don't do that on Social Security when you're making $800 a month. You just don't do that. So you got to live with it I guess."

Homeowners say the dusty condition is caused by school traffic that goes by too fast or too many cars that come by at the same time. Add buses to the mix and there's a haze in the air every school day.

Jeannie says, "We shouldn't have to live down here like that in a dust bowl. It's terrible."

After a call from Six on Your Side, Omaha traffic engineers said they plan to inspect the street conditions to look for solutions. That could include spreading calcium chloride that knocks down dust.