The Paris News

I am not writing this article to entertain you with an amusing story; (although I do happen to have several ready for print in the event I am allowed to write an article for print again.)

I write this with my computer mouse in one hand and with the other, I am scratching places that itch that we don’t need to go into much detail about. Actually, I have another itch that cannot be scratched without the City of Paris helping me.

I live on the west side of the 400 block of 12th Street S.E. I have lived here recently about five years (this time). I have owned this house and lot since about 1963 and lived here at that time for several years. This was the first home I ever owned and as it turned out, is also my retirement home. My lot is longer and wider than a football field and has a city concrete ditch crossing it toward the back part of the lot.

I can remember when I lived here back in the “good ole days.” I remember that men used to walk down the ditch, spraying for mosquitoes, on foot, wearing their gear on their backs to do so, on a regular basis. Of course others also used to go up and down the streets in vehicles back then, spraying into the yards and such on a regular basis as well.

Back in those days, the concrete ditchs, drainage ditches or whatever people choose to call them, were built for one purpose. They were built to take water from areas in the City of Paris, out of the City of Paris. They worked quite well.

All of us along the drainage ditch have always had to have bridges built over the ditch to be able to get lawn mowers to the back part of our property to mow. I cannot tell you how many bridges were swept away through the years as a result of too much water rushing through and the city not maintaining the ditch before the heavy rain tore our bridges apart and washed them away in pieces.

I have a new strong bridge built as I write this, but I do not expect it to last. When there is a hard rain, I have seen “white caps” splash as high 12 feet tall when water hits the bridge. It will not withstand much more punishment for long. I have a neighbor that has built a place to raise her baby puppies up on high stilts to avoid the floods during heavy rains. All of the neighbors on this side of the street have complained to the city many times.

But my main concern is I want to walk my dog. I want to have a hamburger or steak cooked outside. I want to water plants in the back yard. I want to sit at the picnic table. I want to do so much in the area behind my home and I am not allowed to. I am forced to live inside and just wish that Paris would do more for their residents. I am a prisoner inside my home because of the mosquitoes, and I should not be.

The reason that there are so many mosquitoes in my yard is because there is a water leak somewhere. The leak causes water, good clean water, to be running down this concrete ditch, drain, whatever you might call it. Water runs every minute, every day, around the clock at the speed of a water facet turned on high. The city says it knows that the water continues to run, but they can’t stop it because they don’t know where it is coming from.

And the ditch is in such a state of disarray, cracked, broken, horrible looking, that there is a spot on my property in the ditch that never dries up, even in the hottest months of the year. The water there is still, non-moving and stagnant. I sometimes feel that I am breeding mosquitoes for all of the rest of you. If you like them, send me a thank you card. If you think some of the ones that I have bred are bothering you when you go outside, please join me in my crusade.

Thanks so much for reading, but excuse me for scratching while you do, I just walked my dog. Where did someone put the alcohol?

Norma Renfro is a Paris resident.

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