Crisp Lake Chronicles - Vol 2

The Crisp Lake Chronicle   1950

The Crisp Lake Association Board of Directors was presented with the annual environmental award  given by the Standard Hauling Institute of Technology Company of Maywood.  The institute gave the award this year to the organization that did the most for the community to maintain high standards or excellence concerning the local community. 

Details of the reasons of the award were not given but the Chronicle has found out what really happened and that the award was not given to those who are the real deserving. 

When Homer Steinbeck first noticed the green and brown sludge looking material oozing out of the drainage line that feeds Crisp Lake he immediately called the health department.  The inspector did not know what the problem was so he called the county engineer who was just a confounded and subsequently called the Army Corps of Engineers who was just as baffled.  The Independence Health and Roads Department said they would be glad to help but it was out of their jurisdiction. 

The Crisp Lake Association board held an emergency meeting and decided the best thing to do was to dam the drainage pipe line and build a hold pond to collect the debris, then they would have the Institute in Maywood haul the waist away.  The vote was unanimous, yes build the dam.

The Woman's Axillary of the Crisp Lake Association thought other wise, especially Mrs. Sullivan.  She thought that it would be best to get to the root of the problem and not just put a band aid via a dam and holding pond.  The male board members told her that the problem was no longer worth looking into, the problem was solved and the source of the whatever would be impossible to trace. 

Mrs. Sullivan was determined to find out the real problem.  She and some of the auxiliary members met early one morning at the drainage pipe.  She tied a rope around her waist and started crawling though the tunnel through the merk and mire.  The rope was just in case she got lost in the tunnel and needed to be pulled out.  With a flashlight she followed the green and brown sludge to a broken pipe just below a man hole leading to the surface.  She stood up, lifted the man hole cover and found herself in the parking lot of the Standard Hauling Institute of Technology. She went directly to the managers office, after cutting the rope and giving it three tugs to let her ladies on the other end know that she was OK, and suggested he follow her back down the man hole.  He reluctantly did and that is when he saw that the sewer pipe serving the  facility and half of Maywood was draining directly into the pipe and thus into Crisp Lake.

The manager was embarrassed and asked if Mrs. Sullivan would not mention the problem because of the negative publicity.  She agreed if the Crisp Lake Association would be given the prestigious award for environmental protection and that the lady auxiliary be given a cash donation.

The men built the dam and the holding pool, the Standard Hauling Institute of Technology kept their reputation in tact, and the Lady's Auxiliary received a nice little cash donation.

This brought to mind an old saying from a book I once read:  If you have an impossible task to perform always give it to small children and women, they don't know it can't be done.