I kept reading.

The same problem had been listed the following year.

And the year after that.

Three years.

No repairs.

No dredging.

No expansion.

Nothing.

Then I found something even more interesting.

A board meeting record.

The minutes mentioned a proposed landscaping project near the retention basin.

The project had been approved for nearly $60,000.

I stared at the number.

Then I walked outside.

The basin wasn't maintained.

But the landscaping had been done.

Flowers.

Decorative stone.

New benches.

A beautiful little walking area.

Right beside the drainage basin.

Someone had spent tens of thousands of dollars making the area look pretty while leaving the actual flood-control system damaged.

I called an old friend of mine, a retired municipal engineer named Tom Alvarez.

He came over that afternoon.

I showed him the documents.

He studied them for almost twenty minutes.

Then he looked at me.

"Frank."

"What?"

"You've got a problem."

"I know."

"No."

He tapped the drainage plan.

"You've got a much bigger problem."

The Missing Water

Tom and I walked the property line.

He examined the wall.

Then the storm drains.

Then the slope behind my house.

Finally, he crouched beside the drainage channel.

"See this?"

I nodded.

"Water should be moving east."

"It isn't."

"Exactly."

He pointed toward a newly landscaped section of the neighborhood.

"The original grading plan sends water through this channel and into the retention basin."

"But someone changed it."

Tom stood.

"Not someone."

He looked at me.

"Someone with authority."

I felt a chill.