Monday, July 1, 2019
"We Had a Good Thing Going."
Yesterday, I ran into David Coviello at Home Depot. David looks great, and things seem to be going well for him. His father died some months ago, and his mother didn't move down here, as he thought she would. But he and Lucas are working on the house, and he visits his mother in Connecticut.
Naturally, we talked BP. He said he doesn't really keep up with our goings on, or, as some say, mishugas, but he does follow this blog. Same old same old. What could I say? It's bad.
We didn't talk long, but as we were parting, he said "we had a good thing going." And we did. He and Roxy Ross and I got along well, and we accomplished a lot for the Village. We didn't always agree, but we trusted each other, and we respected each other. We had our eyes on the same ball. It was always just about the Village, and making it whatever was each of our version, or vision, of the best it could be. We were solicitous of the opinions of our neighbors, and we welcomed hearing from them. And we always responded. We worked well with the best of Heidi Siegel. Heidi at her best is pretty great.
We outsourced sanitation, which has worked well, and saved us all a lot of money. We even got WastePro to offer all of the Village's sanitation employees work with them, for more money, and still assigned to BP. They didn't choose to accept the offer, for whatever were their reasons, but they were welcome.
We got the log cabin renovated, and the administration building built. We managed our police problems. When Heidi left, we hired a new manager, and she was someone who was accepted and appreciated by everyone who had anything to say in BP.
We got a survey to determine the extent of our drainage problems. We put ourselves on a path to address those problems.
I myself am sorry we didn't accomplish even more. We did the best we could.
As David said, "we had a good thing going."
I was out walking with Mac Kennedy this morning. Mac is slightly preoccupied about the ribbon of asphalt lining his part of 11th Place, and representing someone's idea of parking surfaces in front of houses. This problem exists in other parts of the Village, too. And we saw the foundations for new driveways going in, and they'll most likely be solid asphalt as well. It's the cheapest type of driveway.
ReplyDeleteOne of my last acts on the Commission was to try to craft a driveway and swale Ordinance I could support, and it had to be one where the Village no longer approved impervious parking surfaces. I wanted gravel, bricks, slabs with adequate spaces between them, or anything that wouldn't simply allow water to pool, and spread into puddles (ponds) in the street. I couldn't convince anyone else (really Dave and Rox) to agree to this. I think they felt it was too much to ask of our neighbors. So I failed to make that one last accomplishment. And I regret my failure.
I was willing to ask that of my neighbors. I would ask it of myself. It's better for the Village. It's better for the environment. It's just better, and it's worth the extra expense. If you can afford to do yourself a new driveway, then step up one more step.
I also regret that I couldn't convince Dave and Rox to "task" P&P to give us a new median plan. From the comments they made, I think they thought I was asking, or also asking, for money to be set aside to rebuild the medians. I wasn't. I just wanted a plan, so individual neighbors on individual blocks could themselves donate the money to acquire whatever plantings were consistent with the plan I couldn't get, so we could improve the Village that way, too.
Dave and Rox had their own ways of wanting to improve the Village, which we did, and I don't regret any of the accomplishments we made. I just wanted more.