Comment

Comment by AQUAMAN on September 25, 2012 at 1:37pm

I'm taking more notice day to day on Dowland about that pigweed situation. And I think it's very detrimental and an eyesore to have to look at as you pass down the newly paved street. It would appear that the commercial establishments and favored few got either a full sidewalk out front, or nicely planted top soil grass. The other sites with pigweed could easily be construed as being second class citizens, as those residences appear less kept up and modern. Isn't that a bit prejudicial, all things considered? And why would anyone want to try to mow that awful stuff, or weed eat it?

Comment by XLFD on September 20, 2012 at 7:49pm

Willy, you jarred something in my noggin by your response, I will reveal what in a thread later. 

As regards the wooden pipes, they were very functional in their time, but now that water pressures along pipes are a bit higher than they used to be, they can fail with bad results.  In checking out that factoid, I uncovered this article from the Alpena News  regarding some of the history of the wooden pipes used there, which is similar to why we probably had wood extensively used here.  Wood was plentiful, cheap and serviceable.

Comment by Willy on September 20, 2012 at 1:56pm

Wooden water lines are common in many cities and are not a problem unless they spring a large leak. The pigweed  may have been in the soil that was put between the curb and sidewalk and probably was not planted.

Comment by AQUAMAN on September 17, 2012 at 1:19pm

Did anyone see or hear about the old water and sewer lines that were torn out and replaced? Well, I did, and here's the scoop. The lines were so old and outdated, that they were incased in wood log cut-outs, probably from about 100 years ago or so. When I saw that I was totally shocked and appalled at the ancient system still barely in place. That tell us anything about the need for new infrastructure in town? And how it's been ignored for eons by the Mayor and City Council? Of course those in charge don't live on or near Dowland St., so why should they?

Comment by XLFD on September 17, 2012 at 10:21am

I could see the Code Enforcer coming out to my house with his ten inch ruler and notifying me of allowing nuisance weeds to propagate in the right of way.  Never had pigweeds there before, however, and now everyone who hasn't mowed since the start of the month has these things reaching over a foot high while the grass has grown maybe an inch on the rest of our lawns.  I just may call the CE myself and complain about some city-owned property on Dowland having too-tall nuisance weeds.  I hates nuisances.