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Around the Neighborhood

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When we were young kids, mom and dad had this enormous roundtable we all sit down to at precisely 6 p.m. because that is when dad came home in the cruiser to eat. Most times, we had between two and four kids from the neighborhood there to eat also, so you can imagine how big the table was (there were already six Gadd kids).

Occasionally, dad would tell us in advance we were having a board meeting. Not the kind with high corporate drama or financial dealings. Rather, this one involved settling out all the high anxiety (usually mom's), and dealing with the wrongs or bad behavior that led to this meeting. In most cases, we all walked away from the board meeting with a sore bottom. It was felt that if no one knew the truth or would come forward with the truth then we all were guilty. If not of that crime against family, then for something else we just had not been caught at. So, fess up, tell the truth and take your punishment. Otherwise, your siblings wouldn't let you forget it.

Learning at a young age that if you have one coming, you might as well step up, fess up and take what is coming to you has done me well over the years. That's why I wrote the article last week about missing a wedding and sure enough I ran into the bride at Wal-Mart. To her credit and my great despair, she was very moderate in her dressing down of me. She couldn't fathom my humbleness and willingness at approaching her when I saw her. But, I deserved it. I guess asking her to name their first child "Donald" would be out of the question too.

Just as I atoned for my forgetfulness in that matter, I was well pleased with Judge Ellwood and his comments last Monday on how well we had did with the sewer plant behind Meadowbrook. Though we now have given it up because (as I was told) council didn't want our people working out of town (we are out there anyway with water service), we were in court for the formal handover. Anyway, it felt good to be recognized for a job well done.

Having spent half a day at the courthouse though, it did reap some rewards. After intense negotiations between the Ohio Attorney General, the USDA, the new receiver of the plant, the sewer plant's owner's attorney and our own Bill Ferguson, (Randy Mercer and I got to sit in the hallway all morning), they came up with a plan to present to our council.

I told Ferguson that since he was a part of it and I wasn't, he could present it to council. The formal approval of Judge Ellwood was given to this plan and it will be presented next Wednesday at council.

The gist of it is this. From my discussions at the beginning of the day with USDA (before all the close door stuff), I found out they have a whole boat load of stimulus money they will not be using until next year. So all parties put together a plan and Bill Ferguson will ask council for formal permission just to fill out an application to apply for stimulus money of 100 percent of the money to lay a pressure line from behind Meadowbrook to one of our lift systems at the edge of town. No money from us and no workers from us. We would just receive the sewer from out behind Meadowbrook and would be charging for it. Estimates from operating the plant for the last two years are the village would pick up an additional net $50-60,000 a year after the bills were paid.

Not a bad idea since we could use the additional money to pay on our new sewer plant that we have been mandated to build. Plus, it gives us room to add additional customers in the future.

But, that's just the facts. My hope is that we aren't too short-sighted not to take a deal like this especially if it is just to fill an application. Costs keep going up and the more dollars we can take in from additional customers, means less dollars we will be asking from you.