As I scribe this week’s missive, honey bunch, it seems the local yokels are planning the most recent edition of the Icy Plunge, that annual trek to the beach to help cancer awareness. Well, effen the mavens of the weather stations are correck, it might, indeed, be “icy” or I should say icier than normal. A big chill is supposed to hit us by the time yew git this week’s edition, and it is to stay with us up until the late weekend, we are told.
I hope the boys and girls who are taking part in the Plunge have plenty o’ warm clothes for afterwards, there could be some serious after-affecks effen they ain’t careful. Meanwhile, that snowstorm we need to clean out the air seems to be eluding us. Plenty o’ locals are under the weather, and momma used to say that cold and snow are needed to clean things out. Methinks we need something to git rid o’ the germs, that’s for sure.
Here in the Asylum by the Sea, January is giving way to February and with it the budget cycle is beginning. As yew remember a couple weeks back our just-hired finance director determined that the job was a bit more than he expected and up and left. That means we have a new guy who is trying to git up to speed just as the new budget process begins. That could be good for him, who knows.
He and herronner will be working to cobble together a new spending plan for next year, which is usually announced in March. Then we start the whole review process, which takes us into May. Now, Sammy Bluejay was in t’other afternoon and reminded Cobina that some givens are gonna have to be conceded as we git closer to the announcement.
Under the five-year plan as agreed to by the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB), this will be the foist year of an increase in the mill rate to begin the move toward more kopecks in the city coffers. As yew remember the plan calls for a maximum (at least for now) of 40 mills when the five-year plan is completed. Of course, who is to say that won’t change.
That translates to each homeowner and apartment owner paying 40 smackers for each thousand dollars the building is assessed up to 70 percent of the total. That’s not including fire taxes, which will be around 13 or so, depending on the districk. That means once this plan is over, the effective rate is gonna be well over 50, closer to 55 mills. That’s a lotta money, and that’s not including the auto and property taxes.
Sammy noted that the General Assembly just proposed a range where the auto taxes could go, and he suspecks – and Cobina agrees – that most will go with the higher limits of the range rather than the lower. Methinks I saw it could be somewhere around 40. All this is still to be determined, but the way the Assembly likes to pass tax increases, keep yore eyes on this.
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Nelly Nuthatch was by the domicile and sez that there is a report that the school sale of one building might be the boon that is hoped for at least in one section of the burg. Nelly sez that with the sale of Stiles school pending, and the sale of at least one business over there on the same block, talk is of a developer coming in and taking over the entire area.
This ain’t the foist time this has been contemplated, and about a decade ago one o’ the property owners got rid of his tenants and tried to capitalize on the train station being a bit away only to give up the plan. That would be the boost that the area around Wagner Place needs effen a developer can be convinced to get involved.
When the station was proposed one plan called for a revamp of Wagner Place into some sort o’ period piece with stylized light fixtures and facades, etc. That plan, like the one for the law school at the Armstrong Building passed quietly into history, and was never heard from again.
The train station was supposed to be a boost to the economy, and did give one benefit with the construction of the supermarket over there, but not much else has happened.
Yew know one thing, effen any of this is remotely true, there is gonna be one guy who will be on it faster than yew can say “all aboard.” Mikey Mercuriano will sniff this one out effen even a smidge of it is in the works. We shall see.
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About a mile and a half away, meanwhile, we have the Haven projeck which we are told is gonna be coming “any time now.” Iva Lootey, who was at the press conference back in 1997 when H. Richard Borer, Jr. foist announced it as the “Water Street Project,” sez that “any time now” is what should be put on a sign in front of the project area: The Haven – any time now!
The problem is when it was announced in 2014, then-Mayor Ed O’Brien based much of his budget on the permits and other fees that the projeck was gonna generate prior to becoming a taxable shopping area. Here we are almost five years later and nary a thing has been done, but it’ll be here “any time now.”
Of course, some demolition took place, but that was more for show as we got to the 2017 mayoral elections – much like we said it was at the time. Since then the rest of the properties have been purchased, but nothing is happening. Who knows, maybe 2019 will be the year. I do know this even some city officials are not happy that things are moving jest a tad faster.
Still, Cobina is looking for a traffic pattern report or study. That will be the signal that something is ready to happen. Lower Elm Street has become difficult to traverse during certain parts o’ the day cuz of the highway reconstruction and the way there is a rather circuitous route into the berg from Kimberly Avenue.
Like I keep saying, the traffic is gonna be bigger in volume once this plan is completed, and then there is the matter of the Kimberly Avenue Bridge. That was a “temporary” span that was supposed to last a maximum of 15 years. It’s been there since 1969. Just a few things to think about.
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The wag is sayin’ that the Charter Revision Commish is continuing its foray into the workings of the city, and once the package of changes is presented to the public, it will be quite something to digest. Hard as it is to believe, the commish has been working for more than a year, and is set to put out its plan in July. Once it does, the City Council will take up the package and determine when and if the things to the voters.
It’s been a long slog so far, and there is no reason to believe it won’t continue to be a slog as we head toward July. The wag echoes Ed Granfield, the chairman, when he sez that the commish has had a first-class education in civics during this period, and probably knows more about how things work than do politicians. We won’t say that is a perty low bar, but yew git the drift.
It’ll be interstin’ to see jest whot happens come July and the back-and-forth that comes from the politicos when the recommendations are put forward. In the past, many a change in the charter was nixed by the politicos cuz it would have been a shift in how things are done – and the power structure. Over the last year or so, the politicos have been rather silent and let the commish do its work. How that plays out come the summer is gonna be an interesting situation. Usually we know what the pols think, this time not so much.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,