I don't have the stomach for this. It was yet another ridiculous meeting. The Village Attorney runs them, with Roxy Ross providing backup. Bryan Cooper wants to know which way the wind is blowing, so he can go the other way. Which he sometimes has to contradict himself to do. Barbara Watts has that perpetual deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. Steve Bernard thought he had terrorized his peeps into voting against the fence ordinance, with his usual razzle-dazzle, except Noah backed himself into voting for it, thus creating a majority that finally approved the Ordinance. Steve had a word with Noah after the meeting was over.
But here was the interesting material: father Cutie and his posse, comprised of Mr Llanes, the "Principal" of the proposed Mater Academy Charter School. Yup, still on the drawing board.
Cutie started. He presented a problem, and its solution. But he didn't see it. He said the poor Church of the Resurrection can't afford all the maintenance it has to do, then he indicated the Church, or the Diocese, owns a house it doesn't occupy and a school building where there is no school. I would have called that pretty elementary arithmetic: sell the house and the building, and use the money to preserve the Church. No? Less useless real estate, which the Church doesn't need, and more money, which the Church does need. If I'm missing something, I hope someone will tell me what it is. But the Church is still trying to contort this into something else, like creating a school that has nothing to do with a church, and foisting it on a neighborhood that doesn't want it. Must be that "new math."
Enter Mr Llanes. He starts out by talking about this school we're supposed to absorb. And appreciate. So Roxy Ross, and the Village Attorney, remind him that we stopped considering this last year, because the Village paid attention, and spent money, but the Mater people never presented what they were supposed to provide for the Village. Something about a business plan that Bryan thought was essential last year, but thinks is unnecessary now, and four other kinds of requested documentation. Roxy suggested to Llanes that we were done exerting ourselves, if the school, and the Church, weren't going to specify what their vision was. They should have done a demographic analysis, to see what our potential student population is. But Llanes said he couldn't tell us what range of schooling they were proposing, until they knew from us what our need was.
Huh? Our need? We don't have a need. This all started with their proposing a school to us. We didn't ask for a school. Somehow, Llanes twisted this whole thing around.
And then, he got into a fencing match about the Codes. When we asked for a business plan, or a five-year plan/projection, he wanted to know if those kinds of requirements were in our Code. Very crafty. And sarcastic. Well, here's what's in the Code about schools: They're not allowed. End of story. Sort of. If a school already existed, it would be non-conforming, but it would be grandfathered in, so it could stay. But Cutie had already said the education building wasn't being used, so the school is back out. If a non-conforming use is surrendered or inactive for six months, the grandfathering becomes void.
But the school/Church has an ace up its joint sleeve. The right-wing government of our State has enabled a collusion between Charter schools and certain other enterprises, like churches, so that they no longer have to follow land use codes at all. They only have to follow building codes. So the Church and the school are free to tell us they're done playing with us, and we're getting the school, whether we need it or like it or not. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm thinking of telling them that, at the informational get-together they wangled out of us.
Cutie mentioned that he doesn't want the Church to leave the Park. I wonder how much company he has. Apparently not enough to fill a church.
