LETTERS: RED STAR DISTRICT GETS LITTLE ATTENTION

To the editor:

I don't know just who to say thank you to, so I thought perhaps the Southeast Missourian might run this for me. My thank you is to whoever has come to the Red Star district and looked at and bought out houses still standing from the flooding. There are all kinds of overgrown weeds and trash. A burned-out house on Johnson Street has been there for months. There are gas tanks that have been left not for months, but for years. Old cars are inside fenced areas. But someone has noticed and is beginning to see what an eyesore it really is. For this I must say thank you.

At this very time the river is up. I doubt very seriously that anyone would question the fact that it is impossible to sit outside without the mosquitoes eating you alive. But finally Rand Street has been blacktopped. Hill Street has not. It does make one wonder why, when there was money for streets to be done, and we were the last to be considered. It just never happened. This is an old neighborhood, but it is a good neighborhood. Come see. A lot of good people live and work hard in the Red Star district. And never once has anyone said to me, "Oh, that's OK. We will just pass on your taxes."

Right now I can hardly get in my driveway since it rained so hard the other night. One in a while the city brings a cup of gravel and puts it down. Sometimes a grader comes, but mostly when it's done it's an old bucket thing knocking the gravel around a little.

Shame on the city officials for forgetting us. But thank you again, whoever your are, for some progress. Someone finally noticed.

GOLDIE PENDER BENEFIELD

Cape Girardeau