The whole issue at Alexandria, Indiana is not only the raw sewage or unsafe drinking water, but rather the silence. Not the kind where there is sleep at night in the calm streets, but the kind where evil is given room to operate after silence has been granted by the leaders. Citizens of this small Michigan town have been caught up in a mounting political scandal that began when a bad smell led to a possible water contamination and has now escalated to the potentially two million in misspending of infrastructure funds and a citizenry who have become desperate to learn the truth.
The fears of water safety in Alexandria started to emerge this year, when the residents complained about experiencing the sewage overflows in their yards and basements. Funny smells, murky tap water and light sicknesses are raising questions, which apparently no one in City Hall wants to hear. When the local people felt like they wanted to demand an answer, they looked to the July 7 community meeting where representatives of the state environmental protection IDEM were going to address. It was not a water or sewer question that was tabulated, but rather an unexpected bloc no. to any discussion of the water and sewer question, the motion of the councilman was to call the question, and thereby exclude the subject of debate. Many subjects that had sent whole troupes of anxious parents into the chamber were declared out of the question. Not only was that silence shocking but it was dangerous too.
This ruling left a sore spot, not only because people were afraid of possibly having dangerous chemicals in their pipes, but because it was a confirmation that their voices were not being heard. Others had already started unofficial testing of their water and complained that they had also detected the presence of E. coli albeit in quantities that the authorities could not acknowledge as problematic. The credible assurances by the same officials in public were not credible when they did not even allow open discussion. The Alexandria Indiana water crisis wasn’t just about what might be in the water—it was about what wasn’t being said.
Added to the anxiety was another mystery just under the surface that is the reconstruction project in Washington Street. At an original price of 5.2 million dollars, the small one-and-a-half mile stretch of road has turned into a close to 10 million dollar project with little visual work that has been completed over a year since the project has been stalled. Local researcher James Peters who is come to play the role of unofficial watchdog has developed invoices and contracts that show a tendency of cross-billing, gross overcharges of engineering expenses and a rather obscure paper trail that seems to be intentionally created. In response to the figures, VanErman, in turn, argued that the expenses were accordance with the scope and scale of the industry but no clear budget has been shown in the public view.
The outcome is a town that does not know whether its water is safe or not, and one that is left guessing where the town is spending tax payers money. To most, both the two crises; tainted water and fiscal mess was the manifestations of the same disease; a government that is more concerned about being in control over being responsible. The sickest aspect to the tale is not the fact that sewage might be present in backyards or the millions of dollars wasted in half a mile of road. It is the manner which public officials and especially Jeremy VanErman have dismissed the very citizens they are voted in to represent.
And as the city strives in vain to silence its gong and tom-tom, men of Alexandria are learning when to make themselves heard. It is not only cowardly not to speak up against contamination, but also complicity in it.
