Emails to the town board through my regular account are now blocked from public view. So much for transparency. But what the hell do you readers care? It's just free news to you that you can edify yourself with as you sit on your couches eating Fritos, doing nothing except allowing your democracy to circle down the drain while the front line fighters get mowed down on your behalf.
Hi all - Two things that I would be interested in the town media exploring when they get the time:
1) Those of you who have ever driven on our nation's interstate highway system may be familiar with the occasional annoying practice of some truck drivers occupying both lanes of the interstate (passing lane and driving lane) on the two-lane sections and not passing each other, just driving side by side for miles and miles and miles (generally well below the posted speed limit for normal driving conditions) without allowing anyone behind them to pass. I'm sure this is illegal, but without enforcement, the people driving the smaller vehicldes lined up behind them have two choices - Either take the next exit and get off the road to find a different road, or look into buying a semi. Both of them seem like the truck drivers engaged in this behavior win, or get their way, simply because they are bigger and because they can bully others in the absence of laws or enforcement of these laws or penalties for violating these laws, not because they are following the rules.
Similarly with the new ear-piercing sound tunnel created by Full Throttle on Moraine, which effectively directs all amplified band "music" in one tight pattern directly across the street. If the submitted plans were to enclose the stage, this hasn't happened. Was the plan approved with this intended to happen? How do you enforce it or penalize it if it isn't going to happen any time in the next decade?
I would encourage the town board to hold their next meeting directly across the street from Full Throttle on a band night to see if this is subjectively loud or dangerously loud. Again, there are state and OSHA regulations related to hearing protection, with or without the participation of an unwilling town board or local police force. The four business locations across from Full Throttle in Gaslight Square are all unoccupied this summer, and the structure is well on its way to a Slab-like yet entirely
sui generis urban blight. I don't see how anyone in a restaurant across the street from Full Throttle could hold an indoor conversation when Tahosa or similar is unloosing holy hell, so who would be stupid enough to open a restaurant in this location?
Coincidence? Intentional? Was this a way for a favored, high dollar business or project to get rid of the little guys, with the tacit approval of the town board, who has plausible deniability because they don't bother worrying about anything off of Elkhorn, or anything related to damaging noise and hearing loss, instead preferring to get bogged down hopelessly in triangulation and sources or receiving ends while counting the tax revenue generated by businesses of questionable redemptive value focused on a narrow, age- or lifestyle-choices demographic?
2) The dais has been noticeably light the past few meetings, with more than one trustee absent and just barely a quorum present. Just as a policy question, the absent trustees probably don't forfeit their insurance coverage during these absences, since this would be hard to enforce, but I'm sure hopeful they don't get their free meal delivered to their beach of choice by Door Dash, and I'm really hopeful they aren't being paid their $200+ per meeting subsidized by stakeholders while they are not physically present. Is that the case, or do us taxpayers foot the bill for every town board member every second and fourth Tuesday even when seats aren't occupied?
Thanks in advance
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