One More Chance To Get It Right.



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Sour Grapes, or How I found myself in an Aesop’s Fable

 

This last week, there have been more developments around here than just the new City Administrator. Funny, the same newspaper that had the Fire Chief’s resignation published prior to the Mayor (let alone the rest of the council) was informed, hasn’t yet had a story on the man. It appears leaving the town is more important than who is arriving. Over half of us have no idea of his name or qualifications. Granted his name may be on channel 23, you know, the station that over half of households in town does not receive.

The loss of Chuck Daughtry was not a surprise after unsuccessfully applying to the Port of Astoria and our Port hires Gary Rains. Some wondered what there was left for Chuck to do. Some of us wonder if the lawsuit that has the Nestle project stalled, maybe even stopped, that Nestle was his last chance to pull jobs into the community soon enough after the failure of the casino to keep his reputation and job security intact.

Martha and Barry LaMont’s house on Mimi’s hill of lost dreams is on the market to be sold. On a personal note, after spending hours upon hours of my time and energy:

 

·                Successfully transitioning the Food Bank from St. Patrick’s to FISH, retaining as much local autonomy as possible while increasing nutritive value, arranging for a second freezer and delivery to the bank of eggs, milk and vegetables:

 

·                  Being given 90% of the work to do and yet inundated with phone calls and emails from Martha Lamont demanding attention and praise on her fund raising or telling me what she wanted me to do like I was her assistant rather than the co-manager with a list of own duties.

 

·                  Watching her turn a neutral non-political gathering place into a secondary 5-Alarmers workshop with petitions and exhortations why we had to take the town from the then Council.

 

·                  Dealing with the fallout of both Lamont’s insulting and frightening the person who brought the bread donations into town.

·                  Getting my chest grabbed by Barry and then being harassed by comments and gestures by him at every city gathering we both attended. (No, changing my seat did not help) The last occurrence was outside the Post Office because I was sitting in a car there.

 

Yes, I’m certainly glad to see them go. I’m sure when they started their “my way or the highway” actions, they did not think they would be the ones leaving. Was running the town that important to them? Seems not, now.

And our soon-to-be-ex Mayor, Lance Master has also gone on the market.  There is so much to say about that - none of it good.  Jeff Helfrich is taking his Portland connections away because he didn’t win and Lance is removing his pompous presence from us. It’s a win-win for the town. Both of them obviously share Lance’s warped concept of what constitutes democracy.

Good, take your marbles and leave the game, because for most of us here in Cascade Locks, it’s not a game, it’s not placing illegal fees on utility accounts because your favorite city service wants it and it is at the cost of other services. It’s not something you give up on and leave; it’s where we live. We don’t need sore losers here.