Much ado about apparently nothing, or alternately: Up in Smoke

In the day late category, below is a thought or two from yesterday morning.

Should not have to be a mind reader to figure out where this one is going.

In a late April Fool's joke, played on us by not sure who, but with the punch line being delivered by the state, what was isn't going to be.

Technicalities or not, no one can blame this one on the Town, or the Town's Planning Board. Before we get to the what the heck happened (which we probably won't cause I see dove tails all over the place on this one), let's discuss what did, and give the appropriate Kudos to those who did it.

Based on the law, the application of the law, and the procedures required by the law, your Planning Board did its job. We could debate the path let us say on how the job was done. We could argue certain other aspects of well the argument.  

The application of the planning board rules and procedures, not to mention applicable statues and codes, is a technical thingy.  Extremely technical.  To such a point that what ever little subjectivity exists, can be in fact greatly debated as to whether much if any exists.

The board was navigated through some extremely choppy waters by a steady and firm command, admittedly through some waves perhaps caused by some of the crew, but in the end the ship and its contents sailed into port intact. What happens to the contents of the ship's hold after delivered and when lawfully delivered cannot be blamed on the course sailed.

Recent events also give the board even more time to tweak and add to a pretty good by-law should it feel so inclined (can you say fees and escrows).

Simple reality is that the best laid plans are not presently needed as there isn't going to be any pot plant permitted, absent any successful appeal if there is any appeal process, of the denial.  Even if there is an appeal process, even speedy is seldom that.

The dominos for this decision do not stop with pot growing being stopped.

The tax everyone was licking their chops for is now irrelevant.

The only tenuous legitimate reason in to withhold placing certain other Alden Road property on the auction block has just fallen. 

Talk all you want about recycling centers and public safety complexes, any serious plan for the first should have been submitted a year ago, and any serious thought for the seconded shouldn't impede the sale as thinking about it and funding it go hand in hand.  

The latest and greatest acronym as an excuse for any delay now seems to be "RFP".  Most commonly it stands for "Request For Proposal". I can come up with another meaning, however I would have to toss myself for using it. Perhaps the more PC meaning should shift to "Reality Formulated Policy".

Anyway .. as usual ... I digress.

For our immediate area it seems things have gone up in smoke. There will still be weed growth along Alden Road. Unfortunately for some the vision of replacing the weed with manicured grass isn't going to happen. 

The state has served up a cup of tea that some may find hard to swallow as everyone sits down to hash this problem out.  A whole lot of people had a whole lot of plans, not mention hopes, rolled up with these plants. People from Aunt Mary to cousin Mary Jane, little Boo, and who knows, even the great Buddha too, some of your buds I am sure too, are perplexed and wondering.

In the most technical sense, at least according to the article in the local daily, it seems the blame for the application being clipped rest with the applicant.

If you were being cynical though, if you bought into conspiracy theories and such, you have to wonder why the good wood never gets burned in our area.  Anything that has a dollar signed attached to it, and make no mistake about it there are huge ones attached to the substance of this issue, falls apart into a pile of ashes.

Anyway, I don't buy into conspiracy theories. The joint where I store the collection of things that make up my self-induced delusions is crowed enough.