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Bud Grossmann’s
Words of the Week
for the Week of
April 1, 2007
Previously unpublished fiction.
© 2007 by Bud Grossmann.
All Rights Reserved.
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Galloway County, Wisc., 2007
© 2007 by Bud Grossmann
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CITY BOY’S LAMENT
From: "Jacqueline Carlin" <j—@centurytel.net>
To: "Dave Fischer" <d—@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:22:17 -0500
Subject: Local elections.
How do you feel about controlled growth? I think without some growth, the village is going to wither and die. We can have a more in-depth discussion on politics before Tuesday morning.
...
From: David C. Fischer <d—@juno.com>
To: "Jacqueline Carlin" <j—@centurytel.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:35:11 -0500
Subject: Controlled Growth, Village of Fjord
Jackie, you ask how I feel about controlled growth. I'll repeat what I said originally, and you need not reply in writing, unless you want to. But I'll be grateful if you can give me any more ideas before Tuesday's election about the different directions in which you think the candidates might lead our community—Connie MacGregor or Marvin Gilroy (and others, Greg Fitzsimonds, for instance, who is not running for office but has announced he intends to open a new financial institution here in Fjord). Maybe, Jackie, we can talk when we walk, when you're pointing out more sights for me in this lovely little town, my new home.
What I said before:
Thanks for your comments on your preferred candidate of the two for village president, MacGregor and Gilroy . (I think only three people are running for three trustee slots, but I was glad to hear your warm endorsement of one of them.)
I'm still unsure how I'll vote. But let me tell you more specifically what kind of counsel I was requesting from you. Please look at the FjordWisconsin Web site and read Marvin Gilroy's position on controlled growth. What he said was way too general to satisfy me. This should be a big issue for a person in your profession, and I don't know what your position on it is, but here's mine: I want as little growth as possible, and I want it cautiously controlled.
I'm concerned about rising property taxes, sure, but as I said last week when we walked up Mallard Road, the more businesses and people that come into a community, the more costly services the village government has to provide, so where's the assurance of a benefit in deliberately encouraging growth? That's not a rhetorical question. I'd like to hear an estimate of whether Mr. Gilroy has the experience or smarts (and political power of persuasion) to do something beneficial and palatable (to me) in terms of growth, and I'd like to know whether the present president, C. MacGregor, and the trustees have sensible plans in place. I'd like to hear whether property taxes are lower in, say, Mellon, Wisc., where, I've heard, the community encouraged manufacturing businesses to become established, and I'd like to hear a comparison of the quality of life in Fjord and other small towns.
That's what I said in my previous e-mail, but I'll add a couple of thoughts here. I think of myself as naive, uninformed, and uncomprehending about matters of large-scale economics or city planning. (And I'm weak on small-scale economics and organization of my own humble household, as well.) However, in my observation (which may be myopic), I've seldom seen anyone else displaying an effective large view for a community. Walt Disney might be an exception. Maybe you can name others, maybe others here in Galloway County or nearby.
So I'm confessing my ignorance and asking for information. I will feel better if someone in Fjord can give me an overview of this town's history since eighteen-whatever-it-was, or its recent significant history related to "growth" and show me how that history (or some plausible description of other towns' success stories) seems to indicate a likely positive result if further "growth" is invited and encouraged.
I am wondering about cause-and-effect of such things as the development of Briarwood Acres years ago, the building of the new high school (does it serve students from a wider geographical area than the school we attended in the sixties?), the closing of major businesses in downtown Fjord and nothing comparable replacing them for quite a while or ever (Kroger Store, Benny's Clothing, McWayne's Drugs, Fjord Hardware or wasn't it Gambles, Kilpatrick's Feed Mill, doctors' offices, what else? my gosh, Jackie, I wouldn't have noticed it myself, but someone told me Fjord is down to just five taverns on Main Street, including the bowling alley!). I'm wondering about the costs and benefits of residential suburbia, such as that Sun Prairie-like monstrosity of Helene Haslett's and a couple of other clusters of magazine-pretty houses or straight-as-a-string rows of nearly treeless new construction. What do these things teach us, if anything? If the town is worse off now (economically, as candidate Gilroy suggests; aesthetically, as I myself contend) than it was at some other point in our town's history, what are the reasons? And is growth the only cure?
Helene Haslett's development should be an easy case study to contemplate. Expenses vs. Tax Revenue (& other benefits). I think I noticed a house or two still going up, but the lots are mostly sold off, built on, and occupied, aren't they? Okay, so let's say it cost the village of Fjord nothing except that the houses are an eyesore to Dave Fischer (and anyone with a beating heart and two eyes who visits the All Saints Cemetery and faces west, no offense, darlin Ms. Carlin, if *you* think that former cornfield doesn't look bad with big-city houses planted on it). Let's say Helene paid for the sewer lines and water lines, streets and sidewalks and so forth, and then the ongoing fees paid by the new residents are sufficient to maintain them. Well, how many new kids did this little subdivision add to the school rolls? Did the schools have to hire additional teachers, bus drivers, cooks, etc.? Why does this tiny town have three police officers? Was the Haslett development the straw that made a third cop necessary? Snow-plowing, fire protection, garbage pick-up, what else? And then, after we estimate the costs of that particular growth, it should be a simple matter of math to total up precisely the taxes collected from those properties and see which is more, the income or the expenses. Am I right? Am I missing something? Do you know if someone has done this calculation? Can you suggest a more valid means of analyzing the costs vs. benefits of growth?
So that would be the easy part of the analysis. But then we could and should ask some things about Quality of Life, things that might be more difficult to measure. Do those few dozen new residents contribute to traffic congestion, to juvenile delinquency? Does anyone from our "suburbs" drive into town and buy milk at Grover's Grocery or buy a beer at one of those several taverns on Main Street, and do those purchases benefit the community? Did some wonderful person move from the big city and into a Haslett house and then become active in one of the town's churches or at the town library and change lives for the better? Etc.
I hope you've seen, Jackie, I love this town. I might have mentioned, too, I like low taxes. But I have powerful preferences for light traffic; tree-shaded streets, concerned and considerate neighbors who greet me by name; handsome houses; well-behaved kids; dogs that do their doo-doo in their own owners' well-kept yards; thriving academic, artistic, and literary environments; and a few unmentionable small-town delights that I'd almost forgotten in the years I lived in a city. Can Fjord promote and preserve those things and still invite industry, commerce, and Madison commuters? That's what I want to ask the candidates.
Okay, thanks again. See you sometime.
Oh, by the way, Jack, which one should I choose for Supreme Court justice?
DCF
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