Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana |
Well, hey there! Welcome to Roundup, Montana! If it's a nice day, we'll sit a spell on my porch and talk awhile. A poem captured my attention the other day. Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget Falls drop by drop upon the heart, Until, in our own despair, Against our will, Comes wisdom Through the awful grace of God. Aeschylus What's on your mind today? |
Well folks - the entire county is mad. I guess you could say we put a $10 'tariff' on the dump. Actually, it's a charge for large amounts of yard - ranch - farm waste that comes into the dump to be burned. It is put into a special area, and when that area fills up, it is burnt. That takes someone 24 hours to monitor. The fire department has to come and watch it. It has to be called to the Emergency Department people first, to see if it's a day you can burn. You know, wind and all. The thing is, people from up in the mountains do fire mitigation. That's good. But then they drive in with 40 ft trailers full of entire trees, branches, lots of bushes, limbs, old buildings, you name it. All this subsequently fills said 'burn pit' up to where you have to light it and burn it. Then it has to sit about a week or two. And in the meantime, no one can dump anything in it. Then when it reopens, the process starts all over again. So - with that as a background - last night evidently a large gaggle of disgruntled people appeared at the courthouse to complain. Well, one problem. Our meeting isn't until next week. There were a few people working, counting the ballots for the school board election. (Another big kerflugle. Never mind - another big problem) These poor ladies had to listen to all the complaints, yelling, screaming. They said they really were scared. I go to the courthouse today to pickup mail for the refuse department and talk to the county treasurer about another refuse matter. And then I get hit with the story above. What??? News to me. I was at play practice last night. So I go to the county attorney- now a friend I appreciate. I tell him "Guess what? We've got trouble perhaps next week." So the attorney gets on the computer and fires off an email to the sheriff asking for a deputy to come to the meeting next week. But now to make this even more interesting, I go tonight to Facebook and find a post from a community member. All the FB keyboard warriors are now up in arms. They are claiming so-and-so said this, and the mayor didn't know. The mayor is now mad and will write a letter to the county to tell us so. And Mr. so-and-so is the chairperson - he's not - and he said it's not official and I made the mistake of putting it in the paper. So I go look at the minutes of the meeting and guess what? Mr. So-and-so did make that motion and they did approve it and I was to put it in the paper. My word. You just cannot make up this stuff. I think I need a raise. If I was still drinking, I'd be drunk tonight. |