Here’s a quick review of the first part of our Common Council meeting, from April 8th. In this post, I’ll comment on the meeting before the discussion of a proposed nuisance ordinance. (I’ll comment on the nuisance ordinance in my next post.)
What’s most striking about the first thirty minutes of our last Common Council meeting is how ordinary, and predicable, the proceedings were: students singing at the opening, a few proclamations, staff reports, citizen comments. I don’t mean to belittle those who performed or received proclamations (including Abraham Lincoln, posthumously, in a way). Quite the contrary — if one considered our town only from these first minutes, one would be reassured, I wouldn’t wonder, that we must be a well-ordered small town, in good condition.
We’re not, of course — we’ve above-average poverty, a shaky budget, the chimera of tax incremental financing, a school district with a retiring administrator with a retiree’s outlook, and a culture with an anti-growth instinct in a time when growth is hard to come by anywhere in America.
There are hints of something troubled, though, even before the discussion of nuisances.
A merchant complains, and no one really seems to care. He might be right, he might be wrong — no one responds, either way. It’s all been said, and heard, before.
A quick list of all the federal money that might, just might, come Whitewater’s way, for proposals, well, previously proposed. One wonders how we would have funded these ideas absent the unexpected developments of a deep recession, and deep spending as a supposed remedy. There’s no embarrassment about feeding at the federal trough; it’s our opportunity to hold our hands out, in line with other communities. We’re plucky and unique and independent, until we’re looking for money, and then we’re eager realists taking what we can from others’ taxes and interest obligations. Walden Pond this is not.
A defeated Council candidate, against whom I have disagreed as much as anyone, offers thoughtful remarks on his service, and on the press in this town, too. His victorious rival thanks her supporters for their support, a self-congratulatory shout-out to all the people who are sure our best future depends on them, alone.
Little over thirty minutes in, we come to a topic years in the making….