Special Edition

Today's edition is in the way of a public service announcement.  Tonight's special meeting for the Board of Selectmen to make decisions on the former school buildings has been canceled.

That is all the information I have that can be verified at this point. No reschedule date.  My guess would be sometime the during week of September 6th.  

The why? Ask your selectmen.  

If for no other reason than the fact this might delay my prolonged absence from this little exercise, I am a bit miffed. Tonight's meeting was my intended swan song topic for the journey south so to speak as far as my travels across the keyboard.

It seems the best laid plans often are for the birds.

Anyway ... and truthfully ... the primary desire and need for a "decision making" meeting is the fact that decisions need to be made and at least from this observer's opinion are long overdue.  Old hat stuff, I know.

Whatever form the RFP ends up taking, any decision followed by immediate action will not be the best decision.  Why?  The never ending issue of money is why.

I am not talking about price of sale.  Best bang for the buck from the seller's point of view is to sell as is, no restrictions other than existing zoning.  You, me, and the lamp posts (existing or proposed) all know that isn't going to happen.

Best chance for a successful RFP with restrictions will be as a result of a successful "advertising" campaign. Advertisements placed in trade journals, key newspapers in different areas other than just where the choir sings. In addition to having someone who can actually handle the coordinated effort, you need money. 

Of course before you get to advertising the property, there is still that nagging little matter of appraising the property.  Should it be properties?  Let's use the singular, for the collective shall we.  

Anyway ... there is appraisal money.  Been some for some time.  My guess has, and is, there isn't enough appraisal money to accomplish the task (at least if we use the plural). Fact is though you have to do the appraisal so you know what procedure you are required to do by law, and so you know what.  

In order to do the appraisal, you still need to meet and make decisions.  

I have said it before. I will say it again. Every other Monday doesn't cut it, especially when agendas end up jam packed.  My anecdotal memory on such scheduling is when it was proposed it was suppose to be a summer schedule.  Quite frankly, I can even by into a summer schedule in concept.  

After Town Meeting in May, and until well the beginning of September, assuming a certain semblance of normalcy.   An efficient operation shouldn't be running into big issues. But it is a given that we live in less than normal times, be the same having come into creation through self-made crisis or otherwise.

The long and the short of everything is this is taking way to long and everyone seems to be grasping the concept that time is running short.  The red ink is continuing to pile up.  

At this point, the whole issue is becoming one of riveting reality television.  The fact that reality television is seldom as real as it professes to be should give you some clue on the matter, but I digress.

I personally have surrendered the battle relative to the whole thing.  Put any and all restrictions you want. 

It is now an observational exercise.  What I want to see at this point is how the "security deposit" is dealt with, and the time frame issues are handled for restoration.  In the long term, I want to see just how restrictive the restrictions end up being.

I want the season ending episode to show some individual riding into town with that white hat, and promising to do all that everyone wants.  Down the timeline we can do a retrospective show to see how it all has worked out.  We will be doing a few of those.  Hopefully the directors, the writers, and the cast of characters in all matters remains as strong in the followup as in the script writing.   

There in lies the key to any solution, to any problem.  The directors, writers, and cast. the best director in the world is only as good as the script and cast available.  Individual cast members may shine, but the overall performance will be panned if the entire cast isn't up to the task.  If you have a poor script, you might end up with an entertaining production,  but no masterpiece and more than likely the best you can hope for is an average review.

But this has all been said before.  Too often. 

Anyway ... 

Enough.  

Be safe.