To the editor:
Well, my friend, the summer heat has arrived here in the Tiny Kingdom, but that hasn’t diminished the level of entertainment our local elected officials and paid bureaucrats offer up on a regular basis.
We found out that the latest event may bring a dubious title to the Tiny Kingdom. For the last 14 years one of the good tax paying, law abiding residents of the kingdom has had untreated sewage back flowing into her yard! Evidently, 14 years ago some “improvement” was made to the waste water treatment system and that’s when the problem started. Evidently, from what I read, an attempt was made to fix the problem, but then the sewage started backing up into this lady’s house! It’s estimated that 1 million gallons of sewage has back flowed onto her property in the past seven years alone.
I’m told this happens every time it rains hard. My grandpa had a cabin roof that only leaked when it rained. “Ain’t no need to fix it now, it stopped raining,” he always said after the storm passed. This must be the way the elected officials (some actually call them leaders) are thinking, because for 14 years, they have been kicking this can down the road, while this poor lady prays it doesn’t rain too hard the next time.
Chuck Cranford, now I’m not making this up, he’s a state supervisor over Surface Water Protection with the NC Division of Water Quality. (Surface water? We just call them puddles.) He said it is waste water and it does pose a health hazard and that’s not good. Now how’s that for leadership, and it only took 14 years. Mark Prince with the county health department said that untreated sewage water could pose a health risk, Gee, do you think?
Here’s the big news. The Hickory, Dickery, Dock Record Keeping Company says that if the wise elected leaders of the Tiny Kingdom can continue to kick this can down the road for just a little while longer they will set a new world’s record.
Then they can issue one of those whereas and wherefore proclamations and pat themselves on the back for another problem swept under the rug…..uh-oh, is that thunder I hear?
– John Calure, Landrum