Flood bonds, worries

Planning?

Regarding “County backs August vote on flood control bond” (Page A1, Thursday), the Harris County Commissioners don’t know what projects they want to fund, and they don’t know how the funding should be managed. Somehow this is all going to be pulled together in time for an Aug. 25 bond election? Not hardly. It is simply not possible to assemble even preliminary engineering to use for decision-making about projects or to assemble any financial commitments beyond vague letters of interest for the funding.

And federal funding isn’t going to happen without a lot more substance to this than they so far have, so kiss that goodbye for the time being, too. No, this is the commissioners' solicitation for a $2.5-billion blank check to be spent according to their whim and whimsy and without even an agreed-upon, coordinated program.

It is indisputable that Harris County needs to invest in flood-control measures, but this isn’t the way to do it. While there is a certain urgency to it, let’s do it right, rather than quick. “Quick” is what got us into this mess. And to think that we need to act now before we lose focus is a really terrible indictment of the commissioners and their concern for the county. If they cannot stay focused on the flood control problem for longer than a year, then we have the wrong batch of folks occupying those seats. Steven Soerens, Houston