Some words of advice to City Public Works Director Paul Fredette on improving drainage at the fairgrounds project: Water is heavy. It sinks. It’s flow is from the top down. So when you elevate downtown and pour floating concrete, this is going to prevent the water from sinking. It will also cause the water — which is heavy — to go toward lower elevations. So, thank you, Firehouse Subs, for helping Elizabeth City’s Fire Department purchase a water rescue boat. It will be needed!

With the Supreme Court ruling on Dec. 4, 2012, people whose property is now damaged by intermittent flooding caused by the government may seek compensation. The unanimous decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that barred claims for damage unless the flooding was “permanent or inevitably recurring.” This allows property owners to seek compensation if flooding alters the character of the terrain requiring expensive reclamation.

According to a Nov. 23, 2011 article in The Daily Advance, a city councilman said that “clearly we have not been maintaining our stormwater facilities. The bottom line is nobody maintained it, and the question is ‘Whose responsibility was it to maintain it?’”

As Bob Dylan sings, “It doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” It also doesn’t take a hydrologist to know which way the water flows. Maybe the city needs some one with critical thinking skills.

ERNEST ASKEWSFlbElizabeth City