Howdy, honeybunch! By the time yew git this week’s missive, it’ll be October! It jest seems like yesterday that we were sayin’ it was June 1, and lookin’ forward to the summer. That’s all gone now. Fall is upon us, and we can see trees starting to brown and tan and yellow. So, it won’t be long before we’ll be rakin’ up millions of leaves. With all the wet weather we’ve had, Cobina even had to toin on the furnace a week ago cuz o’ the dampness. Don’t wanna do that too much, no with the price o’ energy goin’ through the roof.
Here in God’s Li’l Acre things are moving toward the Nov. 7 election day, with Herronner takin’ the usual ribbon-cuttings and special days at the Actors Colony in stride. She had her last town hall a couple weeks back, and one wonders effen she hasn’t checked out already – psychologically-speakin’. We’ve all been there when we leave a job. Mentally, you leave the building before your person does.
The MARB has decided to look into two things that hafta do with our finances. Foist off, an accounting firm has been hired to guide the city into the changes the city hasn’t been able to make on its own. For the last couple o’ years, efforts have been made to change the culture of City Hall, but things never seemed to be goin’ in the right direction.
Matters came to a head two summers ago when the federal funds from the American Recovery Act so-called, were siphoned into dummy corporations, setting off a frenzy this town hasn’t seen in decades. Of course, the culprits were found out, and prosecuted, and one or two are already guests of the federal government at a secured facility.
What the episode brought up was just how out of whack our culture in the Actors Colony was. We’ve gone through several finance directors over the last few years, all complaining that they can’t break the way things are done and how people are against changing things. Now MARB has taken the matter into its own hands, using the powers it has since we were put under Tier IV control.
Well, when you won’t do things on your own, sometimes yew hafta be forced into it. This, ladeez and gentlemen, is tough love. The city is gonna change its way o’ doing business, and probably kicking and screaming will happen along the way.
The MARB is also looking at the much-vaunted pension system the City Council voted on as well. We don’t have all the details, and we’re sure we’ll hear about it soon enough. But, like most things in our fair city, things can’t be done the way others do things. They have to be done in harder, more painful ways.
That the city has to get outta the 401k business and back into offering a pension if we ever expeck to retain members of the constabulary is without doubt. We’ll see how it’s all configured over the next few days or weeks we’re sure. But to say that MARB wasn’t pleased with the outline of it is to understate it. Like I said, we never do things easily around these parts. It’s gotta be a task.
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Sammy Bluejay was here and sez that people are talkin’ about the social media outburst that happened when it was found out the former Chick’s Drive-in building was torn down. Effen yew remember, a consortium purchased the property, and is building a combination of condominiums and a restaurant on the property. It took a while before things came about cuz people were waiting for the Beach Street reconstruction to happen.
That is ongoing and the condos have been under construction for months. More than half are completed, and from whot Sammy has found out, more than a few have been sold. Now comes the second phase of the project, the construction of a new restaurant.
To make room the 70-plus-year-old building that housed the drive-in had to be torn down. Cue the sturm und drang that one expects from social media. To say people “don’t have filters” is one thing. Some of the commints were jest off the wall, according to Sammy. I don’t know what it is about social media that brings out the inner crazies, but many people can’t handle themselves, and feel they can say jest about anything, impugning people and coming up with theories that are off the wall.
Some of the things Sammy told me shouldn’t be repeated in polite company – or any company at all! Granny used to say there are more outside the asylum than in. Anyone who has ever looked at any kind of social media and the loonies that people it knows that she wasn’t too far off base.
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Nelly Nuthatch came in t’other afternoon after seeing that the New England Brewery Company picked up and left before a stone was turned. She sez effen there ever was an episode that explains the way the city does development, this is it. We talked about this in the last missive, as the company did more than it should have in trying to make people happy.
After getting sued by the usual suspecks next door, the developers came up with alternative plans that were much different than originally proposed – the ones that got approved, by the way. But that wasn’t enough, and then the Land Trust people and others piled on in a City Council meeting, wherein the developer threw up his hands and made his not-so-fond farewell.
Now, I said last time, and still believe, that part of the reason this occurred was the company had alternative offers from other cities looking at what was proposed and said, “Come on down.” Why would a company wanna spend all kinds of kopecks in litigation and still have people complaining about what is planned, when they can go elsewhere and be welcomed? It’s a no-brainer.
It’s time for a plan of development for the shore. The Land Trust, people down there, and the city should come up with a plan of what people will accept down there. For too long we know what people don’t want. It’s about time to find out what they want!
The people next door are never gonna be happy. They haven’t been since the takeout place was torn down 50 years ago, and they won’t be anytime soon. They don’t want any competition down there. The Land Trust has to get real. There has to be some economic development down there, and this was a perfect place for it to happen as it started out as a commercial property, and was going to become one again.
We are all for saving the shore, and making it a place for people to enjoy, but we have to have a realistic view of things We don’t want wall-to-wall development, but harrumphing and saying “no” every time something comes up is not a plan, either. The Land Trust was made for the shore, not the other way around.
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We’re heading toward the last few weeks of the election “cycle” as pundits like to call it now, and we’re waiting for things to heat up. Barry Cohen got the thumbs-up from the Independent Party as perty much expected. He had that wrapped up weeks ago.
When the debates are gonna happen and when actual campaigning will take place is anyone’s guess. I yam sure both candidates are walking the districts and knockin’ on doors. It’ll be interesting to see how this whole thing shakes out. We have our own ideas on what people might be thinking and that might be an inkling to what will happen.
But effen anyone thinks this is a shoe-in one way or t’other, they haven’t been paying attention. Effen the Demmies have an Achille’s Heel, it’s that they have run the city for nigh on 34 years and can’t blame anyone but themselves for the shape it’s in or the problems it has.
Effen the Republicans have a problem it’s that they can’t seem to get outta their own way. They latched onto a candidate with a big bankroll, thinking that’ll get them over the hump. Now the party apparatus has a candidate it didn’t support. And how that support pans out in the next few weeks is yet to be seen. Hold onto yore hats. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,