Dear Felicia

Howdy do, sweets. It’s been a while since we communicated so there is plenty of stuff to report. Of course, before that, here we are in June already. It seems like we were just shoveling the last of the snow off the veranda, and here we are setting up the lawn chairs. Tempus does in fact fugit…especially when you’re as long in the tooth as we two are, no?

Here in the Asylum by the Sea things are starting to heat up for the summer. There’s plenty of stuff happening, and everyone is anticipating the warmer weather. As of this writing, however, the chill in the air doesn’t wanna go away jest yet, and that rainy pattern we were in since last year seems to be continuin’.

We’ve had some warm days, and even some thunderstorms, but then we git back to 50-something degree weather and a chilly wind. Watch, it’ll be hot and humid for quite the while and all of a sudden.

The biggest news in these parts is that after soooo many months of waiting, Beach Street finally reopened last week about two months after it was planned. The aforementioned rainy weather was the official cause of the delays with puddles and setch holding up the progress. There was some hope the road would be open for the Memorial Day holiday, but that didn’t happen. The big event happened the last day of May with the usual fanfare.

Sammy Bluejay was in t’other afternoon, and the developers over there at the corner of Beach and Morse Avenue are happy things can finally progress with the new restaurant they plan. And from whot Sammy was able to ascertain, the delay has caused some changes in the plan, but he seemed to hear that they were changes for the better.

Now, you and I know that development plans never finish the way they were proposed. There are always revisions and alterations, but we hear the new alterations will present more amenities than originally proposed and will be quite something. We shall see.

We do know the developers are chomping at the bit to git started, and had to wait until the roadway was open before they could start any kind of construction. Sometimes developments are like the army: Hurry up and wait.

~~~

I mentioned it the last time, but it seems that Rock Street is now completely shutdown with no traffic in or out for the foreseeable future. The official line is there is a sinkhole developing over there – not the foist time that has happened in that stretch (the last on Capt. Kangaroo Boulevard a few years back). So, until they can git to it, the street was cordoned off with sawhorses and now with a swinging gate, jest to make sure.

Those who wanna patronize Jimmies haft use the entrance/exit to the auxiliary parking lot, and either park there or wend their way to the main lot. But, the question before the house is how this is gonna affect the NEBCO development in thee old Savin Rock Conference Center?

That project has had its own set of setbacks over the two years since it was originally approved, and is still in litigation with Jimmies. This is probably a minor problem compared to the slow turn of the justice system, but another headache we are sure for both the city and the developer. Things jest never go as planned.

~~~

We might as well make this report complete with a troika of issues regarding developments and developers. Here we are turning the page on another month and what in blazes is happening on the former “Haven” site is still a mystery. It’s been more than three months since the final buildings were down, and Mother Nature has taken over the land, greening it up with flora, but no word as to what is happening, or effen anyone is interested in buying all or part of the site.

There was some talk of a single buyer way back a year or so ago, when the demolition foist started, but nothing has been heard since. Herroner has been in discussions with the Haven Group, the NYC bunch that first had the idea to put a high-end mall on the site (since nixed). But they are playing their cards close to the vest, and, truth be told, treating the city like the provinces, letting things out only when they think it is time to discuss. The only good thing is they are paying taxes on the land, and that is at least a small comfort.

We jest hope it ain’t another ten years before we find out what is planned for the site. Remember, in one iteration or t’other this thing has been going on since 1997 (when foist announced as the Water Street Project) and ten years since the “Haven” was announced. And so it goes….

~~~

The Wag called t’other day and had a question that has been on the minds of several of us in the last little while: when did traffic laws become optional? The second question is: are the constabulary membership aware of the blatant way people are ignoring the law?

Running stop signs, passing on double lines, weaving in and out of traffic, red lights seen as optional, you name it, we’ve all seen it. People seem in a rush to go nowhere. Cobina happened to be traversing the state thruway earlier this month and going with the flow, but there are yahoos who insist on going 100 miles an hour and weaving between cars. They won’t hurt themselves if they git into an accident, but others will be hurt, that’s certain.

It jest seems like with everything else, there are people who jest won’t follow the rules, and they git away with it more and more. Maybe with the summer coming around, and the constabulary being a bit more visible things will change, but we won’t hold our collective breath.

~~~

The school year is jest about over and graduations and promotions to the next grade will be taking place as they have been since forever. The big news is that Washington School had its “topping off” ceremony, something you can see in these pages. Of course, it was the means of a photo op for the local dignitaries, and meant that the final steel girders were put into place.

Nelly Nuthatch sez that the word about the burg is that the new building is running at or ahead of schedule and is – at the current rate – gonna be finished next May, jest like planned. The current students are housed in the Molloy School Building on Meloy Road (yeah, that’s right), and then will be transferred over when things are completed.

A projeck that finishes on time…not something normal in these parts, that’s for sure.

~~~

Iva Lootey stopped by to tell me that things were quiet with the fire districk elections and they lacked all the drama that once upon a time was part and parcel of the annual event. Things wen off without a hitch, and things got back to normal.

Iva was reminiscing about the old days when Consolidation of the departments was a big isshew, and budgets were always the subject of a referendum in the early parts of May. That has not been the case for some time. In fack, the districk elections used to be proxy wars betwixt the various factions of the Democratic Party for the most part.

Whether it was Roper v. Allen v. Johnson, or Morrissey v. Borer v. Picard in more recent times. The entire exercise was a prelude to what type of war was gonna happen in the party. Those days seem to be gone. Things are still factionalized but they seem to be more under the radar than before.

The last real blowup was the five-year move toward Allingtown deciding to give up its special taxation districk status and becoming part of a new department under the city. That was done after the charter revision about a dozen years ago, that finally allowed the city to git involved with fire districks at all. It was verboten up to that time.

Now it is done, and Allingtown residents that clamored for city involvement are now (at least some of them) having buyer’s remorse. They don’t have the input they once had, and the districk commission is jest a rubber stamp.

Meanwhile, the topic of consolidation, while brought up by MARB every so often, is a dead letter. It’s gonna take a major event for this issue to come off the back burner, and most people don’t see that happening anytime soon. With the relative calm that the recent budget/fire commission cycles show, the days of proxy wars might be over for good.

We shall see!

With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez