Citizens of Butler Township: If you are promised anything by handshake, it’s no good.

I am 87 years old and have been paying taxes since I was 18. I live on Young Avenue in Butler.

A few years back, the township came and laid pipe in a ditch in the alley. My property is 300 feet long, with a 10-foot alley between me and the other owners along the alley.

Their yards are 300 feet long, but run the opposite way as mine. I paid for the pipe, they installed the pipe, were to cover the ditch and level the ground.

They didn’t.

The job cost me $3,500 to complete. The people in charge told me when I had the money they would come and lay the pipe. Well nothing in writing. I would buy the pipe. They said “no way.”

I have unplugged the ditch for years — too old now to do it. A windstorm blew trees down in the alley, and the road supervisor told me that is my responsibility.

I paid to have the tree that fell and plugged the ditch cut up and hauled away. I am not cleaning the ditch anymore and I don’t believe it’s my job. Who do they think is paying their wages?

John Maire

Butler Township