Dear Editor,<\/p>\n
Sunday night, July 23, this part of the New York and Pennsylvania border was hit with a fierce rainstorm that dropped an incredible amount of water in an exceedingly brief period of time. This resulted in an astonishing amount of damage in selected areas, including shutting down interstate 17 (86) between Lounsberry and Nichols, N.Y. for a yet to be determined time. The cost in terms of repair, loss of property, inconvenience, time, and scheduling will be immense. The only saving grace is that it could have easily been even more wide spread.<\/p>\n
It might be time to seriously consider doing some thing to reduce the threat of flooding in this area, by actually investigating possible solutions to this ever-present problem. Hopefully, that would eliminate, once and for all, the idea that getting \u201crunoff\u201d to the river as quickly possible should be the objective. <\/p>\n
Past experience, however, has demonstrated that in this part of the state sound conservation practices, involving erosion control and water retention projects, are foreign concepts to highway departments. We need \u201cnew perspective\u201d to deal with this problem. The \u201cold ways\u201d have proven not only ineffective but also detrimental to the \u201cquality of life\u201d issues of all who live and work here and want to stay. <\/p>\n
They have become a \u201cfixation,\u201d that makes change nearly impossible and are the very definition of \u201cinsanity.\u201d Over the years this \u201cfixation\u201d has exacerbated our problems severely and, if not addressed and corrected, the \u201cinsanity\u201d will continue unabated. <\/p>\n
Our \u201cquality of life\u201d will steadily deteriorate, as we continue to pour money down a \u201crat hole\u201d in the attempt to \u201cstay the course\u201d with what has never worked before. Hard to believe anybody would actually do this, but watch and learn. Truth is stranger than fiction.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Doug Graves<\/p>\n
Tioga Center, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Editor, Sunday night, July 23, this part of the New York and Pennsylvania border was hit with a fierce rainstorm that dropped an incredible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"yoast_head":"\n