Community should make sacrifices to ensure safe future

In the nine years that my wife and I resided in Time Check, I continually brought to the attention of the city the inadequacies of the levee to protect our neighborhood. At one point, The Gazette published a front-page article saying that the First Street levee was sound.

After surviving the 2008 flood, my wife and I had to wait nearly 2 1/2 years before the city purchased our property. The reason we chose to sell was because we were not allowed to pull a permit to rebuild, due to our proximity to the levee.

We were assured by city officials that our property, and that of our adjoining neighbors, fell in the “wet zone” of the proposed levee. Wanting to ensure that our remaining neighbors to the west would be adequately protected from any future flooding, we sold our property to be used for the new levee. Insofar that we did not profit from this sale, we considered the sale as a community sacrifice to the city I was born in.

I voted “yes” on all three local-option sales tax votes because the only way to get funding on state and federal levels is to show a community willing to sacrifice to ensure its safe future.

When the next flood arrives (and it will), my response to those who voted no will be “don't worry, you can do better.”

Andy LaBarge

Cedar Rapids