Save What's Left by Elizabeth Castellano

Author:Elizabeth Castellano [Castellano, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

11

To: Supervisor White ([email protected])

From: Kathleen Deane ([email protected])

Subject: Health department permit

Dear Supervisor White,

I don’t know if you’re even getting these emails, because I have yet to receive a response from you or anyone in your office. But, on the off chance that you do read this, I just wanted to let you know that I have recently been poisoned by some sort of unidentified waterborne bacteria stemming from my neighbor’s new and improved septic system. On Wednesday, I received a call from the health department alerting me of the potential for minor illness and on Thursday, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital where I was immediately placed in the ICU. On my third day in the hospital, I developed a suspicious rash, which landed me in a hyperbaric chamber for the remainder of the day. I am not happy.

Do you remember when I spoke at the December ZBA hearing and asked as to whether or not my neighbors had been granted a health department certificate? Do you remember what you told me? “I’m sure that is all in order.” That’s what you said. Well, Supervisor White, it was not all in order. There is not and never was a health department certificate! There was an application for a health department certificate, but it was denied—eight times!

So, the good news is, my neighbors now have a septic system that accommodates four outdoor showers, five bathrooms, two washing machines, two full kitchens, and a waterfall. The bad news is, anyone who drinks the tap water on Harbor Road is likely to wind up hospitalized, if not dead. Yesterday, I received a letter from the town attorney offering to split the bill for a brand-new state-of-the-art $137 water filtration system for my kitchen sink. Simply put, I have had enough. I don’t think it is too much to ask that a town government not actively participate in the poisoning of its citizens.

On a less dire front, I returned home from the hospital to find that six traffic signs have been erected in front of my house. Three read, SLOW CHILDREN. One says, DEAD END. And the other two have pictures of bicycles on them. None of these, of course, are appropriate. There are no children currently living in my house or even on my street. Even if someone in the highway department suspected that there were children in the area, are three signs inches apart really necessary? And while my house certainly feels like a personal dead end, it is not located on a dead-end street. I don’t know whether or not my street has been designated a bike route, but I will say that these two signs are especially triggering for my soon-to-be ex-husband, who is still recovering from a terrible bicycle accident. I would ask that all six signs please be removed.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Deane

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