Editor, Gazette-Journal:

After working on the Rural Ditch Enhancement Committee, I have a few questions. If VDOT’s our partner in this effort, why haven’t they provided any road plans related to the four problem areas in the study? Road plans show where the water was intended to flow when VDOT built the road.

Lewie Lawrence of MPPDC wants to set up an “entity” to provide oversight on the ditches and their condition. That sounds good, except the idea is tied to charging landowners a fee like they do in urban stormwater management. The difference is Mathews County is not, and most likely, will not become a big city, thank goodness. The drainage here is not for private properties with a lot of paving. It’s from the roads and to let rainwater flow as nature intended from uphill locations. 

But whatever that entity does, we should do things in a proper order. We should identify our level of responsibility before we establish how to pay for it. The old m...