I am unsure of the purpose of this letter other than to serve as a warning to any homeowner dealing with the Saxonburg Area Authority. I know I am not the only one with the same grievances.

The problem started several years ago when the authority began tearing through our yards to install sewer lines. OK, fine, we had no choice but to be on board with that.

Flash forward to after the work was "completed" and every house on our side of the street was left with backyards that were unrecognizable.

We had been told our yards would be restored as close to the way they were previous to the new sewer lines being installed. However, the contractors hired by the authority never restored anything that even resembled the way they were before.

They had to log out the entire stretch of the road for the new lines and then proceeded to bury those trees along with whatever else was in the fill. Our neighbor, two houses down, had 18 trees buried in her yard alone. Once the ground started to settle, those trees started coming to the surface.

We had a piece of rebar come up and had to get our lawn mower repaired after the blade managed to find it. Mowing is not something we can even do very often in the backyard because the grade never was set right, causing water to collect and create ponds, making it too wet to mow even in this dry, hot summer weather.

Our backyard has gone from lush green grass to a mosquito-infested swamp that is a danger to anyone who is back there. It is a complete eyesore.

Despite myself and my neighbors fighting with the authority for more than two years, we are no further ahead now than we were at the beginning of all this. Many promises have been made, but they never were kept. The authority has been quick to place blame on others.

Imagine our surprise when the other day, out of the blue, we received a call from the authority stating that it would pay us $1,000 for the cost of the repairs, if we would do them ourselves.

That sounds generous, but there's the little matter of signing away our rights to any further claims. Does that offer then amount to hush money? Are we being bribed?

Why, all of a sudden, after years of countless board meetings, did they suddenly decide to do this? Paying for us to fix the problem or paying us off?

That is the question. That amount of money won't even cover the cost of the quote we had done to remedy our yard.

The authority needs to realize that, yes, we had no choice but to be tapped in to the authority's system, but that doesn't mean we don't have a voice in the matter.

Our concerns are legitimate, but it just doesn't seem like they are taken that way.

All we want are answers — without being treated like we are an annoyance.

Money might talk, but we are not listening.