5/21/2007

Is Something amiss-ing at the Town Hall?

So, what is happening at the Town Hall these days? Things were rolling right along and looking good. But in the last few weeks, things have come to a standstill as far as I can see. I heard today that the clerk of the works has departed for points far to the west, Hawaii, for the next two years. Is that to be taken as an indication that the process down there will be ongoing for another two years also?

What is going on? Has the contractor left the job? Why? Non-payment from the Town? I have no idea and am just asking. There is something seriously amiss with the whole job so the little birdies have been whispering to me. How come, through out the whole construction phase there has been no public fiscal accounting of the expenditures for the job? Why was there no bond posted for the job, and why only for THIS particular endeavor. Who is counting the chickens at night and making sure they are roosting where they are supposed to be?

I think that with all the fiscal responsibility that the present Town Council has shown, that it might behoove them to demand a full and accurate accounting of where things stand money wise with this project and with the school project. As in with numbers on a piece of paper, NOT delivered orally! How come,if there large deficits in the funds to pay for completion of the new Hall, why were they not put into the last financial Town Meeting warrant so they could be paid. I'm told those deficits run to upwards of $800,000.00! Could this be true?

It is time for the Council to DEMAND answers and solutions to all these un-requited problems. It appears to me, as an outsider looking in, that there is a large dose of mis-management, or should I say NO management going on down there! Is it time for a new hand on the reins? This horse appears to have the bit in it's teeth, and is headed wherever it damned well pleases!

There now, is THIS better than bitching about hats, entitlements, and all that kind of stuff. Let's hear from all you concerned people out there. No Nasty name calling though. Be civil! TIFN

5/13/2007

Uncouth Youth

I went out to breakfast this morning up at the 1661 Inn. It is of course Mothers Day and the in-house mother had been invited out to eat by the newest mother in the family, her husband, and their daughter. So off we go to the best place on the Island for a quiet breakfast, in a very nice location and with Old Island ambiance.

When we entered the building through the lobby, my attention was immediately drawn to FOUR (4) different YOUNG men in the dining room and at the buffet table. The reason for the attraction? All four of them were seated at four different tables with their significant others, and each one of them was wearing a HAT! At the table! In a dining room! In someone Else's "house"! Has this society finally gone over the edge and begun it's slow slide to oblivion?

The blatant disregard for the MOST BASIC rules of etiquette are routinely ignored by the group of people of my children's generation and the upcoming one. The wearing of a hat indoors was and is a huge no-no to my generation. This was drilled into me by my mother and father and then for another 20 years by the US Navy. To my way of thinking, it is as big a slap in the face, as would be a punch by a prize-fighter, to the person who owns and maintains the building you have entered.

There are places where it is acceptable to wear a hat, Wal-Mart, grocery stores, garages, etc. But I have a hard time restraining myself from hat removal when I first enter these places.

I think it is the epitome of dis-courteousness, and a direct reflection of your lack of any basic social graces, apparently NOT instilled in you as a child, if you are an offender. It just shows how much you disrespect the abode and the people who inhabit that abode you have entered. You might as well spit on the floor as you enter, it couldn't be any more uncouth!

Well as good as the breakfast was, and as good as was the company, I was just put off by having to see on three sides of me, this piss poor behavior by these four ignorant people! I would dearly love to have told each of them off, but in a rare moment of restraint, and not desirous of creating a riot in Steve and Rita's wonderful setting, I held my tongue, albeit with a big pair of pliers, and weighted down with a cement block!

I am sure that Arnold Toynbee would agree that we have made at least the first step on the slippery slope to dis-integration! And all because some folks are to dumb to come in from the rain! TIFN.