Friday: About the Ash Street Project, and a Petition

One of my neighbors came over this morning, with a petition about how the Ash Street project in town is being handled.

He's none too happy: and that's putting it rather mildly.

Some background about the part of the Ash Street project that has this neighborhood's close attention is in "Friday: Sidewalks, Street Lighting, and Homeowners" (January 11, 2008).

I put a text copy of the petition on my Sauk Centre Journal.

I didn't sign the petition: not because I think it's inaccurate, but because I've got some rules for that sort of thing.

• The current petition doesn't call for any action. It's an expression of displeasure over a decision made, and how the decision was made.
  • I'm willing to put my signature on a practical recommendation.
  • But, once a decision has been made, it's been made.
  • I might communicate on my own, about how it was made, but not as part of a group.
• Although I am quite sure that the petition is factually correct, it does not accurately express my own emotional response to the Ash Street project's decision-making process.

As an example of the second point, the petition's identified as being from "The Disheartened People on the 900 block of Ash Street.

I was never "heartened," so I could hardly be "disheartened." It's been well over 35 years since I first tried to influence the decision of a city council, and I've been to quite a number of those 'citizen feedback' meetings since then.

My first encounter with 'city hall,' in another municipality, was educational. Someone had taken the trouble to do a great deal of research, clearly demonstrating that an industrial plant would require a substantial upgrade of the city's water and waste treatment system. Also, that although one of the reasons given for extending tax-free status to the plant was that it would provide jobs for the city's people, in fact there were relatively few jobs: and they would be filled by staff already working for the company.

At each step along the way, a council member would interrupt this flow of reason with "just what point are you trying to make?" - in a tone appropriate for an annoyed executive being interrupted by a third assistant under-flunky's interruption of a board meeting.

That time, the industrial plant went in, the water and sewer systems were upgraded, at the expense of property owners other than the industrial plant, and life went on.

'Citizen input meetings?' I've stopped going to them, unless there's a serious need to know what reasons and/or excuses are being used to explain some course of action.

Sorry if this sounds cynical.

I've decided that, however "democratic" and "responsive" this society's political institutions are, people in leadership positions tend to decide what they want to do, do it, and pass the bill on to the people who pay their salary.

The good news is that, these days, we have elections regularly, and can vote for some of the officials who decide how much we'll pay, and for what.

Last Night's Storm: It Could Have Been Worse

Sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning today, I heard an enormous clatter. It was as if someone had thrown a king-kong-size garbage can or a load of metal siding into the street.

This morning my wife told me, as she was leaving to mind the store for her father, that a shed had blown over near Lake Wobegon Trail. That's what she saw, in the first and second pictures. Despite its appearance, it isn't a shed. It's part of a roof, I think. It could have been worse. As far as I have heard, no one was hurt.

Several yards near the intersection of Ash and Lake Wobegon Trail in Sauk Centre had debris deposits and broken branches.

Finding where the bits and pieces of building came from wasn't very hard. A neighbor of mine pointed out where the most damage had been, but I think I'd have been able to follow the trail of broken trees, crumpled metal, and cracked timber.

Seeing what happened to the trees, I'm glad the event missed the houses and housing in that part of town. I've heard two explanations of what happened: it was a small tornado; or it was straight-line winds, something like a downburst. Just how the storm re-arranged part of Sauk Centre will be discussed for a while, most likely.

The worst damage seems to have been at a car dealership, John Weis Ford.

• Mr. Weis's new body shop lost part of its roof
• Light poles are bent - one all the way to the ground
• Quite a few vehicles are damaged
• His lot won't be ready for use until the mess is cleared away

I'm pretty sure he has insurance, but this is going to hurt.

By the time I got there, a couple guys, one armed with a monkey wrench and tool belt, were starting work on the worst of the light pole damage.



This was around 10:30. Cleanup and repair were already underway.







Meanwhile, just west of the car dealership, folks one of the apartment buildings on Fairlane Drive were driving around a tree that had tipped onto about half of a driveway.

Back on the south side of John Weis Ford, the new body shop obviously needed 'body work' itself. It looked like a work bay on the east side was still in working order, happily.

Clouds off to the northwest promised a chance for more exciting weather, later today. The U.S. Weather Service bears that out. Can't say that I'd mind a little meteorological boredom, at least for today, but there's not much I can do about it.

There was some damage in the residential areas. That modern art sculpture, behind the pool in a back yard near Lake Wobegon Trail, was a trampoline yesterday. Again, it could have been worse. Another few yards to the east, and those folks would have had more fresh air in their house than they'd want.

By the way, have you noticed how much those new above-ground pools look like the old-fashioned cloth-bottomed ash trays?

You'd think that, with parts of a building ripped off and strewn across a thousand-foot swath, trees uprooted and branches torn away, this old branch would have been broken off: But no, Minnesota storms didn't finish the job this time, just like they left the work half-done before.