A Discharging Dung Dilemma
Inside Buffalo Magazine was recently contacted by a person who is not used to life as it is in Buffalo Oklahoma . Being from a different State in America with a different way of life and from an area with a totally different philosophy concerning property maintenance, code enforcement and local government, Buffalo caught this person off guard.
Here is what she wrote:
I moved here to Buffalo , OK in June 2008. I really enjoy small towns and chose Buffalo over Woodward.
I knew it would be hard to find a job or to open my own business but this is where I wanted to live.
My fiancé and I searched for a decent home to buy. We constantly went to town hall asking who the owners were of property or homes that looked to be vacant.
While pursuing the homeowner option we were living in an extra home my in-laws owned, next to their home. We lived in one room, the living room, as if it were a studio efficiency apartment.
The in-laws offered us a piece of property. It was the lot they owned across the street. We had to get the old, abandoned, mobile home moved out and the property cleaned up. So we did, and then purchased a new mobile home to place on the property.
That same month, I noticed that the people living in the house adjacent to the lot we were given to clean up and ready for our new home, were disposing of their urine and human feces in the side yard of their house. It appears that the neighbors and my in-laws had been complaining for the past five (5) years about the nastiness but no one would do anything about it. I was told that even an ex Town Trustee complained. I couldn’t even think of the idea of moving a new home next door to this horribly, disgusting filth so I called Buffalo City Hall. Their reply was we’ll have someone look into it. Whether someone looked into it or not is not known but I can assure you that nothing changed and I never received any notification on how the Town was going to deal with the issue.
The habitual matter of dumping urine and human excrement into a hole on the side of their home continued unabated. My next telephone call was to the Health Department but no one called me back. After a short while, I called again and they referred me to a man in Woodward who said he’d get back to me. As is typical it seems, no one ever called me back. So I went back to the Buffalo City Hall and asked them why, when the city was giving out “polycarts” for trash, those people next door received one when they weren’t paying any water, sewer or trash bills? Guess what? The Town went by and picked up the polycart. The problem remained.
In August 2008, just 2 months later, my fiancé, his Mom and Dad, and I, each wrote statements to the DA’s office here in Buffalo , Harper County . We also took pictures of what was occurring as well as the human refuse next door and took it all to the DA’s office. Hard to believe but, we didn’t receive any reply - not anything from anyone, not even an acknowledgement of receipt of the information.
Every time we observed them either dumping their human remains or urinating outside, we would call the Sheriff Department. A deputy would be dispatched and come by but unless they personally observed it, there was nothing that could be done about the problem.
Finally, when Buffalo Trustees decided to hire a new police chief in October, we started getting some communication and some action.
I contacted the Department of Environmental Quality about the filthy mess and on January 22, 2009, Kenny Ground, DEQ’s N.W. Oklahoma representative out of their Woodward office arrived on the scene. He couldn’t go onto the property but did get in touch with Chief Murrell to investigate the "discharging dung dilemma."
Chief Murrell had ticketed the occupants with an ordinance violation prior to Christmas and had them pay the fees necessary to turn on the water to the home. That was a start but the human waste problem continued until about Christmas. The running water is only operated when it’s necessary to fill a bucket as we have observed. They’ve bonded out of jail and returned to the property on 2/13/09. I wonder where all the waste is going now since there's virtually no functioning plumbing or water to wash away the waste.
With your help I hope we can remove some of the lawless overseers of this town and get it back on the map as a decent and respectable place to live. The police chief is doing a great job and he’s to be commended!
M.S.
Editor's Note:
That's why Channel 4 - KFOR out of Oklahoma City came to Buffalo on Wednesday March 04, 2009.
KFOR NEWS CHANNEL 4 - Buffalo Article
What do you think Buffalo? Inside Buffalo is addressing you doubters and those in support of: “things as they are.” What is your response?
Is this the thing residents of Buffalo want to be made known regarding this Town?
Will you continue to support the overseers of this Town when it took 7 months to get something resolved about this conundrum yet the problem continues?
If this was you and your problem would you want the government agency that is supposed to be looking out for your best interests, to ignore you? Fail to return your calls? Not even acknowledge your existence? Not communicate to you about a possible resolution?
Kudos to the Chief - his reputation is apparently growing more positive daily.
This was but one person with a series of problems. These are problems that are more serious than a cut in a dike at the sewage treatment facility, or dumping of some hazardous waste at the Doby Springs Water Supply area. These are problems which could lead to an epidemic if they were allowed to continue. Rats – Mice – Cats - all forms of wildlife, critters, skunks – all could have come in contact with that disease laden excreta - passing it onto our pets and ultimately to us. Is this acceptable?
