Posted on 02/12/2021 12:39:54 PM PST by dynachrome
Sharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said.
Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bathroom wall is pulling away from the tub, she said. In the laundry room, the worst-hit part of the house, the smell of mold lingers. “I want to move, because this flooding is ridiculous,” said Smith, 59.
For decades, residents of Centreville, a nearly all-Black town of 5,000 in southern Illinois, just a 12-minute drive from downtown East St Louis, have been dealing with persistent flooding and sewage overflows. The smell of it is in the air all over town after a rain, and bits of soggy toilet paper and slicks of human waste cling to the grass in neighborhoods where children used to play on warm days, locals said. Kids don’t play outside any more. Gardens don’t grow.
Like Smith, other locals say their water tastes odd and refuse to drink from their taps, relying on donated shipments of bottled water. They worry about the long-term health effects of living under such conditions, and they say that for years elected officials and local utility companies inadequately addressed their cries for help.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
She should be proud what with being on the cutting edge of Obama’s ‘Change’ and all.
““Nobody never fixes anything.””
Double negative. Means everything gets fixed!
Two words, prove it.
I swear I am getting so sick if this Black Racist crap that I will be looking for the most lily white area when I buy my next house.
Hell, they already say I’m a White Supremacist anyway.
Don’t need to read past “East St. Louis”. ESL is the anus of Illinois.
L
Google street view of Centreville, IL looks a lot like Detroit. Lots of empty lots and boarded up houses.
I completed my college final exams using punch cards. Was overjoyed when we could finally type code and see it up on the green CRT.
She probably meant to say “Nobody never fixes nothing”.
In other cultures the reactor would have been regarded as an important and prized scientific instrument, certainly not to be destroyed. Different races, different ways.
I’ve been told on good authority that there are some intriguing entertainment venues in neighboring Sauget.
I agree. Most of the comments you will get will show what ....you know.
A cursory look at the administrative staff for this village will perhaps explain why there seems to be no money to fund any repairs to the crumbling infrastructure. Centerville (pop. about 5000) has: Mayor, Executive Assistant to the Mayor, City Clerk, Deputy Clerk, 6 Aldermen (Districts II and III have two aldermen each), Police Chief, Fire Chief, and a Treasurer.
It would be most interesting to know the salaries and benefits of these positions.
Centerville should be able to meet its needs with a Mayor, Treasurer, City Clerk, and 3 Aldermen (two would suffice but 3 are needed to prevent any 1 to 1 tie votes). Though the mayor could be called upon to break any tie votes.
If the Alderman position is part time (which it should be) with any paid benefits then this position should not be provided any benefits except personal car mileage when used on city business.
Since the Centerville official website listed only a Police Chief and a Fire Chief, one has to wonder if there are any policemen and firemen on the city payroll. Perhaps Certerville can eliminate its police department and turn the public safety functions over to the county sheriff’s department. If there are any firemen on the payroll, then a volunteer fire department can be used.
The article creates more questions than it answers about the welfare of the city of Centerville, IL and its inhabitants.
Well then, why does the grass always grow greener when the septic system has failed?
What is obvious from the article is since no white people live there no one is willing to get rid of the sewage problem. Everyone living there seems to be willing to accept that the sewage system will continue to overflow and that’s okay. white people would not accept that scenario. The city government and politicians also seem to accept the sewage problem as status quo. So let’s blame white people.
but the ‘powers to be’ are Black people, I would assume. Therefore are you saying black politicians and utilities dept head will not fix systems if there are no white people around.???
they just want their votes and their tax money
Liquids, not the solids.
Yeah, that’s a problem, and I’d be angry over it also.
Old parts of towns have old pipes. They don’t last
forever, and it can turn into a real mess. (literally)
I’m not always thrilled with how utilities plan for
infrastructure upgrading to avoid these types of
situations.
It can effect electricity, sewage, street lights, gas...
With gas they pretty much have to stay on top of it, or
they’ll have massive problems that would make this look
tame.
They just don’t set aside enough money to keep the
infrastructure functioning.
It sounds like the town used to be mixed race. Who knows what the city council and public works departments looked like back then.
If the city council and public works departments are all black now, why aren’t THEY fixing the problems?
She seems to find racism and white departure a handy excuse for their own failures.
Sounds like Zimbabwe and South Africa to me.
“its been happening for decades”.. Thats all the proof you need from the residents that live there, you wanna. Bringing up the fact they are all black? Ok Sounds like a cultural problem, because it still takes a special kind of stupid to live in an overflowing sewer for decades.
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