The Venerable


Image by markhillary via Flickr

By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009).

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

Say, that could be a title about what is happening to or with Edgewood’s community toilet. Or in the words of Thomas Crapper (erroneously credited with the invention of the flush toilet) “Sit on it!” Sit on it is an option Mayor Stearley has tossed down to allow several businesses in the business corridor of Edgewood to postpone their utilization of the treatment facility. That is, sit on their money for hook-up, as though it is an option the mayor or town government can offer, and not a responsibility that has been held out to the business community of Edgewood for nine years.  If the mayor and some business owners are allowed to foist their idea on the Town; to put it succinctly, the town crapper will be bereft of needed fluids to treat at its brand new processing plant.

Edgewood is quickly flowing to a juncture that has seen some nine years and nine million dollars spent on a waste water treatment system that ostensibly was constructed to “protect the ground water.” At least that is the mantra that the mayor and others have chanted … perhaps the mayor has been politically constrained to admit that another great benefit of having a waste water treatment facility is an attraction for more business … say a magnet for motels, retail stores and restaurants and some clustered young, workforce and middle-class housing options. Did we mention the benefit of treated effluent which can be used to irrigate playing fields, town landscape projects and road maintenance, yes we did … countless times.

The world will not come to an end when (not if) the businesses must use the town’s sewer. If there is a perception or a reality that the initial hook-up fee is a burden, then surely the mayor, town councilors and our town administrator can think outside the manhole and fathom a solution that would allow the fee to be paid on the installment plan — such a plan has worked for the customers of retail businesses, why would it not work in reverse.

The citizens of Edgewood have watched, worried and wondered as their toilet has ran toward completion. They have seen their taxes used, or soon used, to pay for aspects of the sewer, and they won’t be happy devotees of paying more through subsidization of capital needed to operate and maintain a system that is, in part at least, already nine years old (if the initial planning/discussion time is considered) and over nine million dollars in the red. While the town has had nine years to build the plant, those subject to its service have had the same amount of time to accept the idea of buying into the system.

We wonder then, what will it be?  Will everyone that asks for a pass, citing mean economic times, be given one, or will the governing body creatively, find a way to do the right thing and expect businesses to invest in the future of Edgewood … just as the citizen shopper invests each time the citizen pulls out their moth-eaten pocket-book to buy into the facilities of this town through the purchases they make and the gross receipts taxes they pay.

Editor’s note: Although Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet, he did much to improve it. (click the foregoing link)

The image of The Venerable (top of page, right) is his work.

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