.....................IF A DOG PEES NEAR CITY PLAZA....

(Ed.'s Note: As if it were a prop for the discussion by the Cameron County Commissioners Court on establishing a countywide drainage district to handle flooding, a half-an hour rainstorm quickly inundated the area around Brownsville City Plaza on Levee and St. Charles streets. Will the county and the cities and communities in it finally get around to addressing this most basic of needs?

The county, and especially Brownsville, has to refocus its attention on basic bread-and-butter issues like drainage before embarking on pie-in-the-sky pet projects that rest upon this foundation of quicksand.

Endeavors like launching me to Mars from Boca Chica or spending millions to provide hike-and-bike trail recreation to the well heeled should take a back eat to projects that will improve everyone's quality of life. Whether it's outfalls to the river, a unified countywide drainage plan, or any other scheme that will address this problem, it can't come soon enough. Now, will the other districts in the county cooperate in the formulation of a master drainage plan? There will be, we're sure, much political work to be done before we get there.)