Consider that only one substantive flooding incident took place since the pipe was installed. It occurred when a three to five inch or greater rainfall happened in 24-hours or less. This was back in March of 2013 during a major northeaster storm. It could be that with perfectly clean ditches there would have been similar flooding.

What's needed is for engineers and drainage experts to look at the overall flows and come up with viable solutions, solutions to mitigate the flooding during more normal rainfalls. For example, we might well be able to prevent substantive flooding during a rainfall expected to happen in any 5-year period, but never accomplish changes that would handle a storm likely to happen every 100 years. The very first engineering consideration, absolutely the first, is to determine the what flood plan frequency we want to design for, and then determining what is needed to meet such a plan, and, very importantly, how much it will cost.

The GM asked for bids to obtain the expertise and data to help determine what is needed. He has had the information for three months or more but refuses to even share the results with the Board of Directors. Instead of demanding the information, the board decides to have yet another committee look at the issue, and places the foot-dragging GM in charge of the committee.

The budget-included $115,000 per year four-person dedicated drainage crew is the result of board member politics, not proven need. For starters, board members might contact former Public Works Director Kerry Nelson. The $115,000 added to budget allows at least one board member who campaigned on a platform of fixing drainage issues to say they were accomplishing something, whether the money will be well spent or not.

Finally, all the attention to Section 3 reduces attention to other areas in Ocean Pines with drainage problems. For example, along Granby Road. Virtually every home on Granby Road was flooded during the same 2013 March storm mentioned above, yet that flooding did not receive the attention given to Section 3. In fact, the Granby Road flooding received virtually no publicity or attention. However, the two areas have one thing in common, and that "thing" is not the need to clean ditches. That "thing" are choke points along the major drainage ditches. On Granby, the flooding happens because a major flow ditch, even larger than the major flow ditch in Section 3, flows into a small 18-inch pipe. No one need be a drainage expert to know that a channeled six to eight foot wide heavy flow of water cannot be funneled into a single 18-inch pipe. The result, as expected, both in Section 3 and on Granby Road, is major flooding during any substantial rainfall.