Labor Day! Like a thief in the night, it just snuck up on us, dearie! It jest seems like yestiddy we were talking about it being June 1 and all the summer to look forward to. Well, the summer flew by, jest ask the kiddies who trooped back to classes last week. Whilst the calendar tells us there are two weeks of summer left, everything else is telling us things are getting back to normal. Tempus does in fact fugit.
Here in the Asylum by the Sea, things are finding their normalcy. With schools in session the measured way time is spent will be perty much the way things are until next summer. Like I said in a previous missive, honeybunch, it’s amazing how our lives are dictated by the academic year.
Effen you haven’t hoid, the people in the Oxford and Seymour area really got hit with thunderstorms a few weeks back and are still picking up the pieces. We had those storms, but not with the fury they did. We had an inch or two of rain in a short time, but not like those poor people. ‘Twas quite something, and marked the end of another hot, humid spell we had.
Funny thing that! Overall, the summer wasn’t all that bad, but we had about three or four spells of very hot and humid weather like we ain’t seen in these parts in a while. Then storms would come through, and, we hoped would cool things off. Tennyrate, jest thank Goodness we didn’t git what those people did. We would have homes floating in the Soung.
Sammy Bluejay came by t’other day, and we were discussing the move by the city to give a tax break to the new restaurant, called Riva, we see in the local papyrus. The deal was passed by the City Council, and hailed as a way to show that the city is becoming more business friendly. We hope so.
The way we git the picture is the assessment on the property will be made and over five years the tax obligation starts as 20 percent of the assessment and goes up 20 percent each year until the business is on solid ground.
There are good and bad things about these kinds of deals, and it does set a precedent fer other businesses coming in. Sammy was quick to pernt out that beggars can’t be choosers. We in our little corner of the universe have been trying to expand the tax rolls for decades with not much to show for it. Whilst giving tax breaks to businesses is not looked at kindly by some, we don’t have much of a choice.
Even 20 percent of something is better than nothing, and right now, we git close to nothing. This developer built the condos that are perched on the corner of Morse Avenue and Beach Street, and put that area back on the tax rolls, so I guess we should play along. Herroner and the administration are playing what they call in some circles “the long game,” and hoping that putting deals like this together will have an impack toward spurring new growth.
We’ve had spotty results over the years – not much has happened along the West River corridor, for example with those deals. But, like Sammy sez, we don’t have a whole lot to bank on besides our new logo and legend. “Miles of shore and a whole lot more.” Frankly, we have the shore, it’s the “more” we hafta work on.
We’ll see how this works. Playing the “long game” might be the answer we’ve been looking for. Nothin’ ventured, nothin’ gained.
Sammy had one final thought over there. The former Debonair Motel is said to be up for adevelopment and there seems to be talk of something being built. At least we’ve hoid of some negotiations going on. I mentioned this to you a month or so ago. There were some plans that were discussed, but no movement has been made. The “talking stages” they call it.
With this tax deal, one wonders effen the “talk” about the Debonair will morph into some type of concrete proposal. One can only hope!
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Cobina was out in her gassamobuggy last week and effen yew didin’t know schools were open, you’d git a perty good notion that way. The morning traffic, which for the last several weeks has been free flowing was jammed up again in all the usual locations. It’s amazing what a few school buses will do to morning traffic. Kelsey Avenue-Main Street-Wagner Place intersection is a perfect example.
Traffic there is snarled because the lights aren’t synced and jest when yew git through the intersection going toward Sawmill Road, the light turns red, and the back up begins. Yew git past that and the snarls behind yew back up again. Rince and repeat.
And I hafta tell yew the bus drivers have to have the patience of Job. Not only do some o’ the drivers try to whiz by the yellow birds, but there have been some drivers cutting off the buses. Of course, sometimes the drivers git confused cua the yellow flashers go off, and one doesn’t know what one should do.
Still, I wouldn’t wanna be one o’ those drivers for all the tea in China – or anywhere else.
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Jest cuz we’re privy to some of the things that come outta the Actors Colony on Main Street, we see that Stiles School is going through another round of RFPs (request for proposal). That school was closed about 20 years ago, and used as an adjunct fer a while for Alternate School programs, but it has since just stood there with nary a developer lookin’ closely at it.
There was a chance a few years ago that someone was gonna take it, and change it into apartments or something like that, but the development never developed, so to speak. It went from the “talking stages” to nothing.
It’s a stately building and we hafta say hat for the most part it’s kept up perty well. One hopes that something can be done over there. One wonders effen the building will stay, or a decision will be made to raze the structure and start again. One never knows.
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Glad to see the city is letting people know when the next round of bulk trash is. Some residents have jumped the gun and are already putting things out on the street. They don’t git picked up and they leave them on the street. Sometimes somebody will come around with a truck and cart it way – a junk dealer one suspecks – but most of the time it’s jest left to the elements.
One of the problems in the burg for the last little while has been renter who jest don’t care. Trash is left out even after it’s obvious things aren’t gonna be picked up. Laying out there for one week should be a clue. Two weeks? Now yore just being a slob.
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I hafta say while I was somewhat surprised by the announcement a couple weeks back that Steve Mullins left the local GOP, looking back, it was gonna happen. The local party has been split into factions, much like the Demmies. The only difference is the GOP factions are fighting over a carcass that has been picked clean. The last time the GOP had any power in this town was when Bush ’41 was in the White House.
It’s not good to have a one-party town as we’ve seen in the last few years. The only political battles are between factions of the Demmies. The GOP has factions, but no power.
Iyam sure there is more to the story than what is being told – there usually is. But what the “inside baseball” problem is is just that, inside baseball. Nobody cares. We’ve hoped the GOP would have some of the influence it had back in the 70s, and 80s, when it gave the Demmies a run for their money. But since 1991, the party has been a mess.
Until the GOP can put itself in a position to be an alternative to what is there politically, it’s gonna stay on the business end of a losing propostion.
It’s too bad, we member what it was, and it has fallen into something that one wonders effen it could ever be repaired.
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,