You have no idea how much I wanted to put a 'U' in the correct place in the title of this blog; but I digress, to the subject at hand... Remember when I said this wasn't over? Well it isn't - not by a long shot. The sharks are scenting the weak, bleeding animal in the water...

Lay on, Macduff, And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!

Please leave comments on the links to the Press Register articles and of course feedback on this blog is always appreciated.

Fins to the Left…

Last time I attended a Spanish Fort City Council meeting I asked if they had been approached by anyone regarding the resurrection of the service road project. I was told that while the City was in favor of the road, it had not been approached by anyone.

I know, I know, I should have known better. When dealing with politicians you need to ask your questions very carefully as they will only answer what they want to answer and will certainly not volunteer anything extra.

Having done a little research I returned to The Meeting Place and once again taking my place in front of the microphone I asked the question: “Last time I was here I asked if anyone had approached you, this time I’d like to ask if you have approached anyone about resurrecting the service road project?” As I knew I only had three minutes, I also threw in my supplementary questions ahead of time - “and if so, who is going to pay for it?” and “what are the perceived benefits?”

Fifteen seconds doesn’t sound like a very long time, does it? But imagine me stood alone in front of the Spanish Fort City Council with about twenty Spanish Fort residents and one supporter from TimberCreek (thank you!) in the audience behind me and count off fifteen seconds of total silence. I wondered if the microphone was working or if I were in some surreal dream where no sound came out of my mouth; I could feel the eyes of the council members shifting uneasily around as I stood eye-ball to eye-ball with Mayor Bonner as he mentally composed his reply:

“We have always supported the road but we have no financial commitments towards it. I understand that Daphne has withdrawn its support and that Baldwin County has postponed the project.”

Postponed eh? I’ll let that one slide for now but as he didn’t answer the main part of my question, I asked again if Spanish Fort had approached anyone. After more silence, Mayor Bonner responded by asking me if I had something specific in mind. I referred to his letter of August 4th 2010 to Baldwin County Engineer Cal Markert in which he requests the County and Aldot to proceed with the road (view the letter). There wasn’t much he could do except admit that they had sent the letter.

On the question of perceived benefits, Mayor Bonner only had the issue of connectivity to offer, citing that the road would be useful if there were heavy traffic or an accident on I-10 or Highway 31. This would be the same Highway 31 that is going to be made into a 4-lane later this year.

Given the way that Woodrow Lane connects to Highway 181 via a 3-way stop sign and a traffic signal within 40 feet of each other - anything more than 10 or 20 extra cars would cause serious congestion at an intersection used by the Daphne fire department to egress the fire station on Green Court, so using the “service road” as a relief road doesn’t seem sensible to me.

So, I got a politician’s answers to my straight questions. I guess I shouldn’t have expected more but at least it is in the public domain now and it even prompted a citizen from Spanish Fort to comment on the subject. I must admit to not hearing what he had initially stood up to say but he made reference to my questions and said that although he would have been in favor of the service road he didn’t think it was right that Spanish Fort spends any money on a project that would only benefit other cities. Thank you sir, I hope the rest of our neighbors feel the same way and that the 44 cents that it cost to mail the letter to Bay Minette could have been used for a better cause.

Fins to the Right…

Speaking of Bay Minette, I see our old friend Frank Burt is at it again. The full story is on the Press Register web site but in summary: Commissioner Burt refused to vote for the budget that he and the other commissioners had agreed on because they would be changing it as soon as Messrs James and Dorsey take their seats in November. He admits to having closed door meetings with them and given the interests of those two gentlemen, and the fact that Commissioner Burt has been kept on a fairly tight leash for the last 4 years, expect there to be some extra funding for road projects in the not too distant future.

I hope I am proved wrong and that the new Commission remains as friendly toward TimberCreek as the previous incumbents but I would urge anyone with time to spare to attend those Commission meetings in early November and beyond and keep your neighbors informed if anything sounds fishy.

The only bait in town..?

Before I sign off, back to the subject of Spanish Fort. Some might question what the affairs of that City have to do with the residents of TimberCreek as we are officially in the City of Daphne (will someone PLEASE tell the US Postal Service and have them amend their databases!) Well, I did a little research into the money that we, as a household, spend in the various stores in the area and it showed that almost 70% of our hard earned dollars goes into cash registers in Spanish Fort.

If every resident in TimberCreek spends at that same rate it wouldn’t take too big a stretch of the imagination to come up with $1.5 million dollars or more of sales tax money going into Spanish Fort every year. If the stores in Daphne baited us a little more to shop with them instead that extra money could pave TimberCreek Boulevard many times over.

Saving up all my money but takin’ care to look for sharks.

With apologies to The Bard, Mr. Buffett and Parrott-Heads everywhere…