Curtis area residents will possibly benefit from recent finger pointing and accusations concerning the use of county equipment on private property.

The accusations arose after Road Manager Lygunnah Bean admittedly took action before receiving board approval and property owners’ permission to clear a ditch on Curtis Road.

The fact that supervisor John Thomas had recently cleared land upstream of the work led many to believe that rascality was involved and furthered the conversations.

Thomas, a farmer, simply explained that his water was going the direction it always had.

Panola County businessman and civic leader William Pride, who also lives in the area and has unsuccessfully run for that district’s supervisor post, entered the fray and asked a lot questions.
Among those questions was, “Why are some residents receiving help with drainage problems while others, who have had flood problems for years, not receiving any?”

Somewhere in the meantime someone else must have had a similar thought as Bean’s recommendation to the supervisor board Monday was to clear two more ditches similar to the previous ditch with Bean emphasizing, “We are going to do it right this time,” meaning it would be an action of the board and not just of the road department.

The drainage problem is nothing new. Curtis is flat and Bean is correct in saying that the water has no place to go. The drainage way would be overfilled anyway with a large rainfall, but when ditches are full of silt and brush, it makes it that much worse.

It now may be that many more will benefit because of questions asked, and boards, department heads and water districts working together.

Maybe, it’s just our system working.