On Thursday, it became apparent that Slick Jeffie’s $500,000 stop light project at the intersection of Main and Bank, the urgent need for which has been apparent for at least six years, but which has been delayed until right NOW because of the mayor’s self-glorification imperatives elsewhere, is coming to fruition only because of election year politics.
… The foreman seemed to be in a blind panic. He said the Bank/Main project had been labeled “emergency” election year status and therefore would be fast tracked, adding that the amount of work they have to get done would typically require three months — ah, but Deaf Gahan has demanded that work be completed in 27 days.
Gahan’s insistent it be finished before Harvest Homecoming even though this foreman admitted he had never had a project this size proceed that quickly and didn’t know how they were going to get it done.
One might say okay, but at least it’s finally being done — except it should be a four-way stop project from the get-go, albeit inflated to fiscal grandiosity in a vacuum owing to the usual dictates of fluffery, and as oft times before, the independent businesspersons nearest the project, whose routines are to be interrupted most profoundly BEFORE Harvest Homecoming renders them inaccessible for a whole week, HADN’T BEEN TOLD ANYTHING AT ALL BY THE CITY ABOUT THE PROJECT.
Of course, this is standard dysfunctional procedure, and the way it works almost every time. If a mayoral flunky or visiting engineer tells the Bored of Works that stakeholders have been notified, it means none have been notified. Team Gahan’s obligations tend to be toward self-perpetuation, not timely notification.
But on Thursday afternoon, September 12 … with 27 days of compressed destruction about to commence on Monday, September 16, at long last Gahan got around to letting shopkeepers in on the program.
By proxy, of course.
Look what showed up at the end if the day yesterday. Delivered by the construction foreman, not a member of the administration. Charmingly vague, eh?
This is what “work starting Monday” looks like.
I don’t blame the construction company for getting started right away, but Gahan’s office needs to get it’s head out of its ass and be up front about the impact this is going to have on businesses. Work starting today is fine, just SAY that work is starting today.
Like, that’s not even a lie worth telling.
Construction slated to begin on the 16th actually began on Friday the 13th, so apparently it must be a lie worth telling because Gahan tells it every single time — and still the sycophants sing the praises of a mayor whose only noteworthy skill is using an abacus to count the money given to him by no-bid contract seekers.
We can do something about this, you know.
#FireGahan2019
#DrainTheGahanSwamp