SCOTT CITY SEEKS FEDERAL HELP TO CLEAN DITCHES

SCOTT CITY -- The ditches in Scott City have become such a problem that Washington, D.C., is getting involved.

Scott City Council member Teresa Crump told the council Monday night that Lloyd Smith of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's office has volunteered help in getting the Corp of Engineers to clean the ditches.

"It's been called a ticking time bomb," Crump said. "The Corp has told us that the next really heavy rain that we have could cause some serious problems."

Crump also has been dealing with U.S. Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond and John Ashcroft in an attempt to get the ditches cleared by the end of December.

Smith told Crump he would try to set up a meeting with the Corp during the first week of December to get the effort moving.

The ditches aren't the only things in Scott City that are having problems dealing with the rain. John Kosharek, 109 Park Lane, rebuked the council for denying his claim of $56 to pay for clearing a sewer line that backed up into his basement in March.

"This system is poorly designed, and you are going to have problems with it down the line," Kosharek said. "The decisions of past councils have allowed this to happen."

The claim was denied when former city public works director Harold Ueslmann told the council the stoppage was on Kosharek's line to the city's main. Kosharek, who said his basement filed with about a half-foot of water, said that amount of water couldn't have come simply from his house and had to have come in from the main line.

"This is not going to make me poor and you rich or make you poor and me rich, but this is not my responsibility," he said. "I couldn't have put that much water in there."

The council, which had paid three previous claims from the same sewer backup, changed their earlier decision and voted unanimously to pay Kosharek's bill.

In other city business:

-- There will be a Christmas decorations lighting, Santa Claus and caroling at the Caboose on Main Street at 7 p.m. Friday.

-- The council accepted a low bid of $5,352 for a vertical bailer for the city's recycling program. The bid was issued by Armor Co. of Arnold. The machine is a type of compactor that will tube the recyclables for easier transportation and storage.

-- The public works department has begun inviting rural water users to its meetings to discuss their water problems one on one. Public Works Chairman J.T. Gulley said the meetings are an attempt to dissolve the problems the city has been having with its outside water customers.