Your Tax Dollars Inaction

Folks in West Milford, West Virginia are getting a firsthand lesson in bureaucratic buck passing. It seems nobody from any of the various State or local government entities contacted by residents wants to actually do anything about the resident's problem.

Said problem being a very large, very dead cow stuck on a dead tree at the West Milford Dam. The cow's been dead for a while, too.

The brown and white Hereford is stuck on a dead tree at the West Milford Dam, about 500 feet outside West Milford's town limits. The cow has not been claimed by farmers upstream, and officials are not sure how the animal ended up in the river.

"You can definitely smell it before you get to it," said Ken Lasure, who lives about 300 yards from the dam. "Personally, I think it's the (DNR's) problem. I don't think it's the community's problem."

Town secretary Roberta Ash says she's called every state department she can think in response to citizens' complaints. She also called the Clarksburg Water Board, which referred her to other agencies.

Everyone contacted says it's not their problem. So, who's going to be the first bureaucrat brave enough to step up and say, "The buck cow stops here"?