Letter: A thank you regarding St. John’s Ditch tree removal would be nice to hear

Dear Editor:

I’m writing this letter in regard to the article which appeared in the Standard Democrat last month pertaining to the tornado which damaged Sikeston in May of this year.

The tornado destroyed several trees along the east side of Fox Haven Country Club, the Sikeston Rotary Park and the St. John’s Drainage Ditch. I am the president of the Scott County Consolidated Drainage District No. 2 Board and was contacted by the officials of the City of Sikeston to discuss the removal of trees from the St. John’s Ditch.

In addition, we were requested to remove the remaining trees so this problem would not happen again. After meeting with the country club board president, we were informed the country club did not want the trees removed for fear of destroying the greens and fairways. After discussing this with the drainage district board, it was decided to remove the trees from the ditch to avoid the possible flooding of the Mini Farms subdivision as well as the property north of Sikeston. The drainage district hired a contractor to complete this project at a cost of $300,000.

After the project was completed, not one of the officials of the City of Sikeston or any country club board member said thank you for a job well done. In fact, all we have heard from anyone is we should have planted and sowed grass along the top bank of the ditch. The drainage district is not in the landscaping business; we are in the ditch-digging business for Scott County.

I then read the article in the paper in which the mayor was thanking all the people involved in the cleanup of Sikeston from the tornado and there was no mention of the Scott County Consolidated Drainage Ditch No. 2.

I did not take this job as president of the drainage district board for the glory or praise of the people, but it would be nice for the boad to receive a thank you for being a good neighbor.

Robert Laseter,

president of the Scott County

Consolidated Drainage

District No. 2