Q.-18.   What connection does a commercial venture have to do with our SASS area underground sewers?

A.-18.  I will explain, and at the same time qualify my prior statement about getting the impression of a cover up. I am not making such an accusation, because in many ways the city has been helpful. For instance, under provisions of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan that went into effect when the city worked out a business deal with Target in 1994, at about the same time Bass Pro ended its buyout campaign, the developer agrees to pay for fixing defective public sewers in exchange for tax credits favorable to the business.

I tried to view this from our SASS perspective after receiving Enterprise Zone information from Springfield City Manager Tom Finnie, who has always been cooperative in providing information. I have, for instance, a letter from him assuring me the City of Springfield has no plan to exercise acquisition of our properties through Eminent Domain.

As to the TIFs. I deduced that the tax breaks Bass Pro now gets by having undeveloped property within the Enterprise Zone may be more beneficial than if he went ahead and developed the area, but those credits are good for 25 years, which period ends for Bass Pro in 2009. At that time, within the parameters of what kind of enterprise is then allowed to be developed inside a non-profit Enterprise Zone, it might be beneficial for Bass Pro to get the TIF advantages. That means that in exchange for the development of a business on the east side of Campbell Avenue, Bass Pro agrees to fix the defective public sewers on the property.

Since the 70-foot section of sliplined sanitary sewer pipe and empty lot that is the basin owned by Bass Pro are well-known trouble spots, isn't it reasonable to assume the city and John L. Morris might enter into a business deal beneficial to both parties? Morris pats the City's back by cleaning up the muck in exchange for getting patted on his back by all sorts of financial legalities I would not dare try to figure out.

The reason I mention this, even if it may be slightly flawed in interpretation, is because it makes sense. Maybe when Morris acquired the lot west of Manhole 13, he didn't know he was buying land so fraught with water problems that it might cave in. In that case, he and the city have a major problem, and SASS is first in line to experience its deleterious effects.

Q.-19.   Do you foresee a water problem greater than the city might handle?

A.-19.   Yes, unless expansion and growth are moderated so major crossover problems Springfield is already grappling with can be fixed. "Crossover" means contamination of the water CU supplies which can become infiltrated by sewage that leaks from inadequate--broken, porous, damaged or depositioned--sanitary sewer lines. Such contaminants can get into the drinking water CU provides. I know from several bouts of dysentery-strength diarrhea that this happens on my property after a blackwater flood. After the flood of July 2000, I got a tetanus shot, but that didn't stop the intestinal sickness. Allergies, skin disorders and even emotional depression can all result from contact with contaminated water.

Everyone in the SASS area should learn about how the three systems function: sanitary sewers, stormwater drains system and water supply lines because, with the visible above-ground crossover we can observe around Manhole 13, and also have seen at Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street, you might have to take legal action to get the city to do what should have been thoroughly done in the SASS neighborhood long before now. Considering the scope of similar work that has been going on throughout the city's 1000-+ miles of sanitary sewer lines, and which future growth would surely exacerbate, maybe the work force is spread too thin to spend as much time as should be devoted to a major repair job.

Q.-20.   What, in your opinion, should the City of Springfield have done in the SASS area?

A.-20.   With this neighborhood's long history of crossover and flooding, it should have examined every inch of every pipe under the ground.

Q.-21.   Would a thorough test of the underground pipes require digging up our streets and backyards?

A-21.   Not unless tests showed the necessity for major repair or replacement. With today's technology, lines can be run through pipes and cameras transmit pictures onto screens that resemble computer monitors of TV sets. Smoke testing is done in which smoke is pumped into the pipes and monitored for leakage through cracks, holes or disconnected joints. The procedure is similar to the spectroscopic approach widely practiced in medicine. My doctor used it to photograph the first viral tumor he excised in 1999; it was the size of two-and-a-half golf balls and filled nearly my whole left sinus cavity. If blockages or breaks in sewer pipes need repairing, they should be repaired because they could be responsible for the seepage that rises to the surface.

Another approach would be to have the soil tested by the city. I had my soil tested after the flood of 2000 by a private firm and high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria were found in twelve places under and around the house. Some fecal coliform bacteria, like mold, are natural, but excessively high colonies are symptomatic of soaking from above by blackwater, or seepage from beneath the surface. If you have wet spots in your yard that never dry up, you probably have seepage

Q .-22.   Is there a name for the seepage that comes up?

A.-22.   When I described what happens under my house to Barbara at H-VAC, she referred to the "spring effect" that occurs if the ground is saturated. In January 2005 the buckling was so bad in my bathroom that I thought perhaps I had a leaking pipe that could only be seen from under the house. H-VAC sent a plumber named Jeff, who checked the water meter and said I didn't have a leak in my pipes; however, he would not go under the house because of the presence of so much potentially harmful mold that proliferates from the water seepage causing the leak that didn't exist.

Q.-23.   Is there anything SASS can do that's not as drastic as filing a lawsuit?

A.-23.   SASS might finish what I started but didn't complete.

Q.-24.   You started a taxpayer protest, but we heard no more about it. What ever happened?

A.-24.   I started my own personal taxpayer's revolt last fall, but my son--who was afraid I would wind up on the street with nowhere to live--laid down the law. He said if l did not pay my property tax bill to the Greene County Collector of Revenue before the December 31 deadline, he was going to do it. So, as a Christmas gift to him, I paid the tax, but marked the check's memo section "Paid Under Protest." If all homeowners in the SASS area refused to pay tax, as a class, your strength in numbers might get some serious attention or publicity about the problems that have existed in this neighborhood since before most of us moved here.