THE GLOVES COME OFF!

I made a decision a year and a half ago to try a different tact with the new Town Board. I would go easy on them and give them a chance to do the right thing. It didn't work. For the last year and a half I watched them wiggle this way and that trying to sneak stuff over on the people such as the commercial rezone of the park, Song Mountain and the Girl Scout camp. I've just gotten tired of it all. I thought for awhile that they were actually going to do the APD and I figured if that were the case then my choice of staying quiet was a good one. As you will see they are not actually going to do an APD and I feel no need to stay silent any longer. So, let the fur fly because from now on I'm calling it like I see it and that will be that!

(Oh gee, now the're going to be really mad at me... Right! Like they loved me before. Besides none of them read the site (according to them) so why worry.)

My decision came at the Monday night Town Board meeting. All was going fine until Anne Henderson gave a report of their public meeting last Wednesday at the fire hall. I was very curious about how she would respond to my giving her the APD (here on the site). I was amazed at her reaction. In a way it was funny because you could tell she was really pissed about it and she would lose her temper, say something really off the wall and then regain it and sound normal. A real roller coaster experience. (paraphrasing here mind you... Plus you have to imagine this being said by an irate old woman.) She would talk normally then her voice would rise and "We're not going to accept some APD that just has Preble written across the top" then back to a normal voice for awhile then rise again and "We're going to do our own APD" then back to a normal voice for awhile then rise again and "We're not going to use something from out of town" well, you get the drift. When the subject of releasing the dates when her committee met she said, "We're not going to be taking any comments, you can watch but that's it." And when I asked about posting the dates Betty said she would only put them on the board at the town hall and we had a discussion about that for a bit. She laughed nervously about that and finally said I could call her every day but she might not answer the phone. Cute. They are being very exclusive about the whole thing and they and only they would be doing anything with it and at their own slow pace.

Their attitude shows in something as simple as the layout of the table at the front of the room. It used to be open with all the board facing the public in an open way. Now it is closed and they face each other, symbolically excluding the public. It's their town, they own it and we are excluded... period! Forget for now that they got elected by cheating and are there as frauds. *

They have an attitude of inaction guised in the policy of needing to "take it slow" They have been at this for about six months now and they have yet to produce a report promised two months ago. At the Wednesday meeting they talked about making the park, Song and the Girl Scout camp recreational (commercial). Why? Don Armstrong has been spending the last year lobbying everyone in sight to make Song commercial and when that was questioned they said he misspoke, he meant recreational which is just a guise for commercial. Oh come on, we can see what's going on here. It's the same old charade to try to juggle the law to do a bennie for some friends. Which ones? Well, Don Armstrong was the lawyer for Marilyn Stoker back when they did the favor of letting Song put their well on Marilyn Stoker's property and that made a sale for Marilyn Stoker to Song. Now they are talking about condos on Song and perhaps some neighboring property and Don Armstrong is pushing for the rezone to "eliminate a step" as he said at that meeting. What step you ask? You know, the step that protects us by stopping unwanted things. Why else try to rezone it.

As far as the APD goes, well, don't hold your breath on that one. Doing the APD, which would protect our water supply if done right, will also restrict development to non polluting developers. This would slow down certain people with certain financial goals in mind. It would interfere with the retirement plans for the anointed.

Are they giving lip service to the APD or just giving us lip. Last night it was the lip. Anne didn't like being given a completed APD and said so in so many words. Such as (again paraphrasing) "We're not just going to put Preble on the top of some page from somewhere else, we're going to do our own APD" Referring to the APD that Dan Dineen and I worked on. Doing their own will require throwing away the experience gained from the other APDs and probably making the same mistakes they made. Why be so obstinate? Why not use what has been done before as a basis for Preble's APD. Well, because they didn't like the messenger they are going to waste time, money and throw away what was handed to them on a platter. Pig headed is a phrase that comes to mind. It's foolish! All they seem to want to do is weaken the code to make it easier for their friends to make some money by doing what is now illegal to do. They don't want an APD, they don't want to protect the water supply, not if it interferes with their friends plans. They just want to make a big show of doing an APD to quiet the masses about our polluted water.

At this rate it will take then 2 to 3 years to finish this. I could do it in a week, perhaps two. But my version would strengthen the law, protect the water and prevent their friends from making all that money. In short if you want to protect the water and strengthen the laws you are going to have to have a different Town Board that has the interests of the people as their top priority and this crowd isn't it. *

For a year and a half I haven't been saying anything but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching and taking notes. Things are going to get exciting here on the site and in town as I unload 18 months of pent up crap.

Let the fur fly.

*This does not refer to the two new Town Board members… yet.