The Eunice Shelton Thompson Park, also known as the Blair Community Park, is gone. With little fanfare and no eulogy, the park has returned to the state in which the County found it in 1985 – a green and vacant 2-acre lot on 99 Road in Blair. And while the County did dismantle all the […]
Someone Must Pay
December 7, 2012 By
It is no secret that, for the last 12 months or more, Fairfield Memorial Hospital has been gasping for air, struggling like a leg-cramped swimmer in the deep end of the pool to find that golden mean, that safe place where the big toe can just touch bottom. Kept afloat, largely, by a huge influx […]
Post-Election Wish List
November 16, 2012 By
As the numbers began to trickle in late Tuesday night, it became more and more clear that, for the most part, change is overrated. In Fairfield County – indeed, in the nation as a whole – what Tuesday’s elections told us is, apparently, people like things pretty much the way they are. Gridlock, it seems, […]
Time is More Than Money
November 9, 2012 By
Some years ago, there was an advertising slogan for Pepto-Bismol, geared to encourage viewers to go out and purchase a bottle of the gooey pink stuff even if they hadn’t just eaten an entire beef burrito or plate of bacon-smothered cheese fries. Just to have it handy. It went something like: “You don’t want to […]
Talk is Cheap, Facilities are Not
October 26, 2012 By
If we are to accept the word of the Board member from District 4 at last week’s meeting of the Fairfield County School Board – and there is really no reason we should not – the future of the Fairfield County Career and Technology Center has been the topic of discussion by District leadership for […]
Show Me the Money
October 19, 2012 By
If last week’s political forum between MaryGail Douglas (D) and William Gray (R) is any indication, the voters in District 41 will have a tough choice in November between two very good candidates for the State House of Representatives. The candidates proved that political discourse can be instructive without being destructive, and in all likelihood […]
Here’s Mud in Your Eye
October 12, 2012 By
Election years can, by their very nature, be combative, ugly affairs, a rough 12-month stretch of bad road that gets more brutal and unforgiving as we near our final destination, that fateful Tuesday in November. In Fairfield County, on the other hand, campaigns are generally cordial affairs. In a largely rural community where everyone knows […]
To Look Good is to Feel Good
October 5, 2012 By
Legislating civic pride is a tall order, and while it may ultimately prove true that it simply cannot be done, a virtual conveyor belt of civil penalties and fines can be meted out until citizens at least give the appearance that they care. Fairfield County is bound to have their hands full for some time […]
Would You Like One Lump or Two?
September 28, 2012 By
Criticism comes with the job – any job, really; whether you’re a replacement referee in the NFL, the editor of a local newspaper or a member of a governing body, such as the Fairfield County School Board. And let’s face it: No one wakes up in the morning and sets out to do a bad […]
Zoning Out
September 21, 2012 By
Rezoning property is a delicate affair; a high-wire act balancing economic interests with the needs of the community. And once property is rezoned from residential to business, the likelihood of it ever being ‘un-zoned’ is virtually nil. It is what it’s going to be, quite likely for all time. Rezoning, then, is a process that […]
