Small Town Politics

I volunteer at a local museum.  It is small and while important to both the state and county, it has a tenuous State budget and survives greatly with volunteer efforts and donations and fund raising activities.  The 'new' director has been a real force for change in a good way.  Unfortunately, the museum is tucked away on a small spit of land near the shore and tucked between private homes.  When it was built years ago it was not cheek to jowl with the homeowners, but waterfront property is always in demand.  A neighbor, who happens to have been a former state official and county official, has spent much of his time making lives difficult for the museum staff and volunteers.  Using his power he filed a complaint with the county commissioners (some old buddies) that over two dozen pine trees on the museum grounds needed to be removed as they were dropping needles on his lawn and clogging the gutters to a garage...built after the trees were planted.  There is a long and unbelievable series of events that led up to this with the museum making every effort to accommodate the requests of this idiot.  As you can see, these trees have been here a long time.

I live in an environmental state where cutting of trees, especially near the water, is rarely granted.  A dead tree or dangerous tree might be given approval for removal, but over two dozen trees...on another's property...never would happen.  I will not go into details about why removal of trees is not good, but trust me, you want to keep as many trees as possible on this planet.  Well, our county commissioners not only granted this permission and pushed the permit office to move the paperwork along, but they had the audacity to require the museum to pay for the 20 to 30 thousand dollars in cost!  Since the museum depends on these commissioners for budget approval, it was in a difficult spot.

Many of us were concerned about this blatant abuse of power and finally we went to several environmental groups as well as wrote and emailed the Commissioners' offices for an explanation.

I was one of the first emails sent to request politely how this approval came about.  I mentioned my strong environmental concerns and how I had worked hard to keep my shoreline as natural as possible.  I also asked that since my tax money was going to pay for this, why was there not a public hearing?  One of the Commissioners responded almost immediately to my email:

"There is somebody passing along an incomplete story who does not have all their facts correct. May I suggest you go back to them and request they get the complete story before they spread stories?"  Sent from my iPad

This is jaw-dropping.  An elected official indicating that I go find out the correct facts for myself!  And to go back to the original source.  Needless to say we had gotten a response from the county permit office AND the staff of the museum both officially stating that a permit had been granted (reluctantly) to remove these trees at the request of the Commissioners' Office.  I researched this prior to my email even being sent.  I was amazed that an elected official could be so rude and cavalier and actually lie!  Boy am I naive.  He added in a second email that he was sure a formal report would be forthcoming...in other words 'Don't hold you breath, you stupid tree-hugger."

Well, as the day (less than 24 hours), passed, these turkeys in office had to back off on the whole thing and the museum was going to be contacted officially this week to learn that no trees would be required to be removed!  I am guessing they were inundated with emails and realized they could not justify this cronyism.

I asked my co-volunteers how this idiot got into office and was told that our local Tea Party had worked hard for his election.  Golly, golly am I naive.  I keep forgetting that living in a 'good-old-boy' county is really scary and that I should read the minutes of meetings more closely!

I am guessing since I am not a religious person, if God is on the side of the religious right, He may punish me with a hurricane this year or next that will remove all of these trees in one fell swoop...shallow rooted as they are!