so long farewell auf wiedersehen goodbye!

To all my readers who might pick up a copy of the Colonial Heights Patriot to see what kind of offering I have for the week, I regret to inform you that after three years the paper can no longer afford to pay me the measly amount of money they do to continue to write Butterside Up. They do not, however, own my blog on BlogSpot which leaves me in a sort of dilemma as to whether to continue to write these little missives.

I am not totally sure what is going on with the paper. It seems as if they have come to the conclusion that they cannot afford to give the paper away and therefore are making cuts. The first, and biggest, loss for the paper was firing Ryan Lazo, the Sports Editor. I guess, at some level, letting Ryan go is a business decision. And for that there are good business decisions and bad business decisions. I’ll let you, my readers, decide which type that was. In the meantime, Ryan has caught on with the New York Post. Hurray for him.

But still, I am left out in the field wondering if I should continue with my blog. There are hundreds of my little essays on this site, and I could just continue to address the things that pique my curiosity or cause my brain to percolate.

There are things going on all the time in this area that need the light of day, I think. Someone needs to bring this information out and serve as a gadfly so as not let the powers that be run roughshod over the populace as if they have a right to do so merely by having been “elected.” There are many cases where the decisions that are made have negative ramifications to the people they represent, but they opt instead to stay their course because it is what they want to do.

In some cases, they believe that having been elected, what they decide to do is driven by the people who voted them into office. But that isn’t really so. We elect people to do our bidding. We expect them to act in ways that befit and benefit our community. They are there to set policy and manage the affairs of the city.

But some people think that being elected means they can be the lords of the community. “My people” is the thought, but in reality they speak only for their specific groups. There are many more people in the community than those who voted them in.

The question arises at that point as to whether they should represent their electorate or if they should represent the entire community. I attempted to explain one time that there was a huge number of people in the community who did not favor some of the things that the city council was doing.

“But I get all these emails,” I was told.

The people I am talking about, I said, will never email you. You likely will never hear from them. They may not even take the time to go to the polls on Election Day. Are those people any less deserving of the actions of council?

No one ever said the job was easy.

In some ways, a person has to be out of their minds to serve. Especially when it comes to local politics. One hopes, that like in the old days, serving on council or any political body is an honor. But there are those on councils everywhere for whom the honor is an ego stroke. They need to get off their petty personal agendas and do what is right for their communities and not just what seems to fit their own little fiefdom.

The Long and Winding BULL-yvard

Construction on the $12 million Boulevard Modernization Project was scheduled for completion Tuesday, January 21^st, but I see that date has slipped by and the boulevard is nowhere near ready to handle a full traffic load. Patience, patience we are told; everything will be just wonderful when it’s done.

Sure, we have dealt with half the road for far longer than originally thought. Wasn’t the project supposed to be finished last summer? And set back a bit, weren’t we told it would be ready by the Christmas parade? And now, with the latest deadline expired we still have the Main Street of the city clogged with earth moving equipment, barriers, and construction debris.

Initial construction on the project started in April 2013 we are quickly approaching April 2015, and yet the road is still being worked on. It is not a particularly long stretch of highway from the McDonald’s at Westover to the new Courthouse. And yet we are 20 months into construction.

Using Main Street is not a problem for me and perhaps many others. I simply bypass that section of town, unless I have a specific reason to go there. When I do, I travel along the back roads to minimize having to deal with the messed up traffic.

And still there are times when I have to drive on the segment only to get stopped several times for the light here or there. And play any one of a number of games as I try to guess which opening will actually allow me to visit a specific place of business.

For me, and for others like me, it merely becomes a choice. Do I want to conduct business on that end of town or does the inconvenience help me make a choice to go elsewhere? Not a problem for me, I go to the establishments that I have been going to for years. But no doubt all the waiting has caused some problems for businesses along the corridor.

The city says that there have been legitimate road blocks during the long and arduous construction process. And to some extent I would agree. Certainly, our current weather and the weather we had during the late fall was not conducive to getting the work done.

But I have a longer memory than that. I recall a good portion of the summer when the back hoes, bull dozers, and bucket loaders seemed to be parked in the construction areas waiting for someone to show up.

There were days that became weeks when nothing moved and the weather was delightful. Still, I guess, we ought to understand how one thing can lead to another. I am sure there are issues somewhere that have helped slow things down.

Those with businesses along that stretch of highway deserve praise for their patience. If not for loyal customers one would have to wonder how they continue to exist. At this point, waiting another month or two probably won’t put them out of business. But at some point, there has to be an end.

And yet every end has a beginning. The end of the Boulevard Project leads directly to the Dupuy Road project. No doubt that will create a certain amount of confusion along the southern side of Wawa and for Flag Stop Car Wash. But I suppose at some level they already know what to expect. Certainly the side street won’t have as detrimental an effect on sales as clogging up Main Street has had. But then again the city has a lot of lessons learned from the Boulevard job that probably relate to Dupuy Road. At least, for me, I still have access from side streets to the east.

Hopewell and CH: Tale of two Mayors

Ascension by acclimation is a wonderful way to appoint people who serve in positions of power at the local politics level. Sending a message to the community that says, for instance, that City Council is as one in the naming of who will be mayor does indeed send a positive message to the city. It does so even if we know, in our heart of hearts, that factions and divisiveness are alive and well.

Certainly, it’s nice to put on the happy face. To present to the public the idea, at least in part, that “united we stand” is the outcome from council’s voting on who should represent the City as Mayor and Vice Mayor is commendable. Take for instance Hopewell Councilman Tony Zevgolis’ comment from Hopewell’s mayoral election: … “I am hoping that when nominations and voting for Mayor and Vice Mayor takes place in open session, the vote will be an (sic) unanimous with all 7 votes for each position,” he wrote. “Wouldn’t that look good and send a positive message to the public.”

Alas that was not to be in Hopewell. When all was said in done during the private session, the voting turned out to be 5-2 in favor of Brenda Pelham over Wayne Walton. Walton and Jackie Shornak, the person who nominated him, were the two dissenting votes. They also chose not to participate in the closed door session where the rest of council hashed out who would take the honors.

The Vice Mayor honors went to Christina Luman-Bailey, but this time Councilman Zevgolis also sided with Walton and Shornak making the vote 4-3. It was still enough for Luman-Bailey to become the Vice Mayor. It would seem that Councilman Zevgolis’ desire for a vote by acclimation may never happen.

On the other hand, it appears that Colonial Heights had no such problems in naming Greg Kochuba as their new mayor. Kochuba was elected by a 7-0 vote. Diane Yates will continue to serve in her position as Vice Mayor after she was elected by a 6-0 vote, with Councilman John Wood abstaining.

There is no telling what kind of politicking went into Kochuba’s election as Mayor. The council presented a front that Hopewell Councilman Zevgolis would appreciate.

While the 5-2 and 4-3 votes for Mayor and Vice Mayor in Hopewell does show some difference in opinion for the Hopewell City Council one might assume that no such differences exist in Colonial Heights, where no dissenting votes appeared in the minutes. The only hint of dissent was Councilman Wood’s abstaining from the Vice Mayor voting.

Councilman Joe Green said that his decision to elect the next mayor required much deliberation to appoint an individual who could not only lead during council meetings, but also provide a strong representation for the city at ribbon cuttings, business openings, and other citywide events. Green said that Colonial Heights City Council had many qualified people, which made his decision difficult. But based on a combination of qualifications and availability, Green said, he felt Kochuba was the right choice for Colonial Heights mayor.

For us citizens the only best way to figure out what is going on is to pay attention to the meetings. Hopewell’s mayoral elections are an indication of the disposition of the board. In Colonial Heights the public gets no such hints. It’s time for all the citizens of both cities to pay attention to how the members of the each council vote on issues. Present whatever kind of front they will for Mayor and Vice Mayor elections nothing trumps how the council members vote.