monique

Woolgathering
2003-05-01 01:32:30 (UTC)

Fighting City Hall

Yesterday I had to go to the post office to pick up a
package and had to park in a narrow little parking lot
because the three car spaces in front of the post office
were already filled. I noticed that part of that street has
the curb painted yellow but when I looked around, I couldn't
figure out why.

City Hall is right next to the post office so I stopped in
to ask Erika about it. She told me she thought that maybe
Skippy, our fire chief, had painted it yellow because of a
fire hydrant. I went and looked again. There was no
hydrant. So back again I went to City Hall. She said that
she still thought Skip might have painted it and I should
call him and ask. I told her I didn't realize the the fire
chief could unilaterally paint street curbs without going
through the proper procedure. She just shrugged and said
"Well, that's Skippy." Yeah.

I called Skippy. He said he hadn't painted it and didn't
know why it was yellow and he had no problem with people
being able to park there. Hmmm....I told him that Erika had
told me that she thought he might know why the curb was
yellow and could he please call her and let her know he
didn't know anything about it. He said he would.

So, today, determined and persistent person that I am, I went
back again to City Hall. Erika told me that maybe it was the
owners of the local telephone company who had painted the
curb. Their old building (now empty) is in front of it. I
still haven't gotten an answer to why private citizens are
being allowed to paint curbs to prevent parking. She said
that the mayor and some council members would be talking to
the owners this evening to find out what they had to
say. I told Erika okay. I'll be baaaack...... She knows I will.
I have a reputation for being dogged when I get my teeth into
something and my teeth are in this!

I know it doesn't sound really important but I don't like
the idea that people think they can just do things without
going through the proper procedures (the owners of the local
phone company surely know better) and I think those two
parking spaces should be open for people to use without the
fear of possibly getting a ticket. There are a lot of
elderly people out here who go to the post office every day
to pick up their mail. So if the telephone company owners
say they want to keep the curb painted yellow they'd better
be able to give me a very compelling reason (I can't think
of one) or I'm going to start fighting with City Hall.
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I borrowed some software from Aimee this morning and John
worked on my computer all afternoon. Thank you! Thank you!
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I've updated my list of books read for 2003. I read 16 books in April.




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