Here we go again. The Panek-Sullivan Center for Volatilised Chemical Compounds (aka The Cape Charles Stinky Poo Station) was doomed from the start, and has certainly placed us in a quandary. The silly thing is 5 times too big and 7 times too expensive for such a small town, so the nagging question has always been, why would they do it like this? Town Council, in defensive mode, has offered a few clues, stating on occasion that “There is no way to build a $19 million plant and not raise taxes.” That begs the question, why not build a $5 million plant and expand it as needed? It doesn’t make sense until you recognize the optimal term, “raise taxes.” Let’s just drop the pretense and call it what it is: a gentrification project. Raising taxes and fees is a very effective tool to grease the entire process.

As the comrade stated, “Improvements” of towns which accompany the increase of wealth, such as the demolition of badly built districts, the erection of palaces to house banks, warehouses, etc., the widening of streets for business traffic, for luxury carriages, for the introduction of tramways, obviously drive the poor away into even worse and more crowded corners.”
— Karl Marx, Das Kapital

Taken in this context, raising fees for “improvements” (water bills from $35 to $100), was meant to gently ratchet up the pressure, tightening the screws just enough to drive a portion of the population out, to make room for a, let us say, more desirable demographic. But as usual, they miscalculated and prematurely overshot the mark (so to say). Without the many dubious financial contortions, these fees could be triple threat. Now they have no choice but to pimp out the poo station, in hopes of generating an additional $65,000.

At this point, how are we, the mobile vulgus, supposed to trust anything they say? During the last few years, they have hardly been forthcoming in any matter, have they? Take the Great Asbestos Lie (forgive me while I digress into a fit of kvetching) that was perpetrated about the Old School. The presence of asbestos was first used to close the Boys and Girls club. When it was deemed that there were still too many of those folks hanging about the basketball court, they used the myth of huge asbestos abatement costs (the estimates were anywhere from $500,000 to a $1 million to clean up the massive amount of asbestos) as an excuse as to why the town had to get rid of the school for only $10. With renovations currently taking place, the doors and windows are wide open, and as far as we can tell, absolutely no abatement is taking place. So — where’s all the asbestos? Probably down the same rabbit hole where we going to pull out the $65,000.

The wastewater plant (optimal term here is “waste”) is a grotesque abomination that aims to devour us all, especially folks on fixed incomes. Too bad, because it’s too late to do much about it now; we can stab it with our steely knives but we’ll never kill that beast (or escape its malodorous presence). Learning to live with it will be tough too. The options are limited, and don’t be shocked when they eventually cannibalize Front Street to cover their bills. After they bury that exquisite corpse, what or who will they go after next?