MANSFIELD — Community activists are moving to prevent future tragedies after a seven-year-old boy drowned near his home on Friday.

Nicholas Levan was found in a large drainage ditch near Fairfax Drive and Meadow Crest Lane in Mansfield. The site is marked with a makeshift memorial and fresh flowers as neighbors share the pain of his family.

Lance Levan said his son's death was a freak accident. "He was just down there by himself and slipped," adding that he can't be angry with anyone about the incident.

But his neighbor, Roxie O'Rourke is angry. She and others attended a meeting of the Mansfield City Council Monday night to express their feelings.

"We have been here 25 years," she told the body. "I have been to council ten times in that period, always, begging, pleading about the erosion."

Another neighbor, Joyce Williams, also spoke out. "Talking with my neighbors, it seems that approximately seven children and one adult, numerous cats and dogs have been pulled out of the basin," she said.

The women asked council members to hire an engineer to help figure out how to make the drainage ditch safer.

"Could railings be added to concrete slopes so if you do fall in, you have something to help you out?" Williams asked.

And she offered another option: eliminate the hazard altogether.

"Could it be the life of the basin is over?," Williams said. "Could it be we could take storm pipes, storm drainage pipes out into the daylight and cover with dirt and grass and remove this dangerous place?"

Council members agreed to research the issue. The women promised to keep working until a solution is found.

"In my lifetime, I never want to see the face of a panicked father at my front door looking for his child," Williams said. "I don't want to hear him make that 911 call. I don't want to be there when a body is taken out of the water behind my house."

The neighbors had been excited about plans to landscape part of this area, to give it a more park-like setting. Now they're concerned the plan will just attract more children to a danger spot.

E-mail chawes@wfaa.com