I got a question for your readers. When was the last time you contacted one of our elected officials by e-mail and received a phone call back from that official in under three minutes? Well, Gwin and I did when we e-mailed Joe Graham, our representative on the Hamilton County Commission.
We had a problem when our neighbor’s sewer line which runs under our driveway developed a crack, and raw sewage was running down our driveway. WWTA was called, and their resolution to the problem was to replace the existing line where the old one laid. The problem this presented was that the old line, at least 30 plus years old, was very near a beautiful, 120 foot Hemlock tree, and according to our friend, Jimmy Stewart, replacing the old line where it lay would cause severe if not deadly damage to the tree’s root system.
Since we were dealing with the WWTA with whom we had no prior experience, it was recommended that we contact Joe Graham to seek alternatives to save the tree. Joe was at our house the next day and arranged a meeting with the chairman of the WWTA, the owner of Keefe Plumbing, Jimmy Stewart and himself at our house. Within an hour all parties had agreed on an acceptable solution to bypass the tree’s root system.
Gwin and I would like to express our sincere appreciations to the WWTA, Keefe Plumbing, Jimmy Stewart and especially Joe Graham. A week earlier, Joe didn’t have any idea who Gwin and I were, but the first thing he said to me was that he was elected to protect the members of his district and that he was just doing his job.
What a wonderful political arena we would live in if all politicians felt the same way.
John and Gwin Tugman