Last Night: How Low Things Go, and Have Gotten, in a Different Way

Last night, there was a meeting of the BP Foundation.  We have two new members, neither of whom could be present on site, and I am now the alternate.  But since it was our first meeting with new members, I participated.

We sort of reviewed some things, and used our time to establish connections among us, and begin to develop a rhythm for future functioning.  One of the particular projects we discussed is a brick walkway to our newly and very expensively renovated log cabin.

As that renovation was under way, the Foundation (of which I was not then a part) decided to "sell" bricks which would be placed as the walkway/entrance to the building.  This proposal was presented to the then Commission (of which I was a part), and the then Commission gratefully approved it.  The bricks would of course be violently overpriced, considering what brick pavers actually cost, like if you get them from The Home Depot, and the overage would be the fundraising part of the project.  It would allow the Foundation to make money to use on some other project.  The project was established, the Commission agreed to it, and some bricks were soon enough sold.  All lights were green.  Until Tracy Truppman, et al, took office, at which point the whole project crashed.

Two excuses were given for the suspension of this project.  One was that someone had the idea that a brick path might not be historical enough for a building that had gotten a tremendous amount of state funding based on its designation as a historical site (built in the '30s, as one of very many WPA projects), and the other was that the Parks and Parkways Board suddenly decided that this was not the look they favored.  (If the entrance walkway that's there now, which is made of something like straw, dead leaves, and dirt, is their idea of preferable, then they need their heads examined.)  But none of that mattered, because the Commission already approved the Foundation's proposal of the brick path.

But in my opinion, none of that was what torpedoed this project.  It was the dominatrix, who must have seen the list of people who paid for bricks, and how much they paid, and who must have noticed that I, the antichrist, paid half of what was collected.  As of today, there are eight brick purchasers.  Six of them paid $100 each for one inscribed regular size brick paver.  (Sally Heyman, who is our County Commissioner, and who doesn't live in BP, was one of those people.)  One person paid for two $100 pavers.  I paid $900 for four of the large pavers (they're $225 each).  And that, I feel completely sure, is what got that project canceled, or perhaps suspended.  The Foundation has reminded Big Mama's boy about this project, and they have reminded the managers since then about it.  But Big Mama was nothing but vengeful and destructive, and her successors (the majority of them) are completely disinterested in...anything.  And so have been the managers since Sharon Ragoonan.  Until... maybe... we'll see... now.  I am now tasked with reminding our new manager about this project, to get it moving.  And I have a strategy.  I'm going to tell him the idea for the project was hatched, the then Commission agreed, bricks have been sold, and we want this brick placement to begin NOW.  And if it doesn't begin now, then I want my money back.  The fact is that one couple who spent $100 for an inscribed paver don't even live in BP any more.  They moved.  And of the four pavers I bought, one was inscribed with some language about gratitude to the Rosses.  They don't live here any more, either.  There's some old saying about getting off a pot, but I don't remember what it is.  There's another one about closing a barn door, but I don't remember that one, either.

As the meeting ended, someone said something about "seeing you tomorrow."  That's today.  Today?  What's going on today?  So when I got home, I checked the Village calendar, and there is, in fact, a special Commission meeting today.  It's about one thing: a variance request.  I'm busy tonight, and I'm not tuning in to any Village meeting, but I read through the documentation about this meeting.  I'll spare you the details, but for me, the variance request is slightly infuriating.  So I decided to give my opinion, and the reasons for it, to the Commission.  But the only way it made any sense to address the e-mail I sent was to Mac Kennedy and Art Gonzalez.  The other three, who are the majority, couldn't care less about anything, certainly including the opinion and reasoning of someone like me, and it wasn't worth it even to pretend to try to communicate with them.

I'm not sure if we can work our way out of what we did to ourselves at the end of 2016.  Even efforts we think we have reason to think will be successful (the continued presence of Dan Samaria, and electing Ginny O'Halpin) backfire.  But we should want to try.  We live here, and it does, or should, make a difference to us whether this is a nice place or a dump.