My friend Barry reminds me there used to be a Labor Day horse show and chicken dinner at the Optimist Club in Georgetown.

Somewhere in the dozens of photo albums archived downstairs, which inherited me as their keeper when my mother sold the house, there is photographic evidence of the Labor Day horse show and chicken dinner at the Optimist Club in Georgetown.

Earlier today my old pal Barry Sears devoted a social media post to the topic, and it inspired memories.

Growing up in Georgetown, next to Christmas, Labor Day was the biggest day of the year. The Georgetown Optimist Club held its annual Horse Show and Chicken Dinner that always drew large crowds. It always meant days of preparation to set up booths and the large tents used for dining. Watching those men raise the huge tents was always amazing to me.

It also meant that my best friend, Roger A. Baylor and I got to run a Coca Cola booth and pour soft drinks all day. That was major stuff! Great fried chicken and homemade desserts we're a treat. Our mothers worked serving food, my dad was a cashier in the food tent and Roger's dad ran the bingo tables.

There was a lot of stuff to buy, but the best was snow cones and the cotton candy from Fuzzy.

I sure do miss those days and it's sad that event is now history.

And with this recollection, a massive and disorderly jumble of sights, sounds and smells washed over me, like a glimpse into a lost world. Like most worlds, it probably already had passed when I first experienced it. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Georgetown commenced the process of becoming something completely different.

Accordingly, I spent time over coffee this morning trying to imagine what the (then) 58-year-olds at the Labor Day celebration during the Bicentennial year of 1976 were reminiscing about over their fried chicken, pie and iced tea. Back then, I probably was wondering if there was any way to score a beer or two.

Memory is bizarre and selective in the best of times -- then you get old and have no choice in the matter. Barry's is better than mine. He reminded me of the time when the aforementioned Fuzzy told us about the ballyhooed appearance of country music great Hank Snow at the Washington County Fair.

Apparently the musician Snow was a bad gig for snow cones.

"He couldn't draw flies," snorted Fuzzy, and we though this was both hilarious and original.*

I've no clear idea how long the horse show and chicken dinner persisted into the modern age. The last time I can recall attending was 1979 or 1980. By this time the founding generation was in its 50s, and both the Labor Day event and the Optimist Club itself gradually transitioned in the decades to follow.

Those big tents were made redundant by a steel-beamed shelter house, which later was transformed into the all-weather building there today. The grand old house was torn down. The horse show grounds at the top of the hill became a baseball diamond.

Meanwhile, college had freed my inner urbanite, and I became whatever I am today -- primarily, a serial self-exile and a European trapped in New Albania, one who'll probably never come to grips with my past. They were the best of times ... and you know the rest.

But Barry's words made me smile, and this morning, that's something I needed.

---

* No sooner than I finished writing this, Barry revised it; seems he was at the Washington County Fair with another friend, saw Fuzzy there, and heard the story. Nonetheless, it still seems that I heard it from Fuzzy at Labor Day. At this point, I'm not sure it matters. 

Saying goodbye, and resuming the journey.

April 1, 2017.

We drove out to Georgetown yesterday morning, and I don't mind saying that it's a strange feeling to have both your parents in the trunk of the car.

My father died in 2001, and it was my mother's decision to keep his ashes with her at the house they shared in Georgetown. When mom began discussing her wishes with regard to her own passing, she was characteristically specific, with one major exception.

They'd purchased a burial plot at Wolfe Cemetery, on Georgetown's west side, and she acquired a veteran's government-issued headstone for them to share. However, she wouldn't commit to whether the ashes should be buried in the plot, by the headstone.

This was left up to me -- bury them, scatter them, keep them ... whatever.

As a sanity mechanism, human beings are quite capable of laughing through tears, When I first saw the fine wooden box containing my mother's ashes atop a table at the funeral home, I was reminded of the aftermath of my father's wake 16 years ago.

We drove back to the house, and I picked up the container holding my father's ashes and carried it into the house, setting it on the kitchen island counter next to the sink.

My mom walked in and didn't skip a beat.

"No, not there," she said, as though surprised by her son's failure to appreciate a hitherto unknown point of etiquette pertaining to urns, remains and their proximity to dishwashing zones.

"Then where?"

For once, she wasn't certain.

"I'm not sure. Maybe over there on the shelf?"

Granted, it's not something we think about every day. Eventually my dad's ashes were moved to a corner of the living room, along with the American flag provided by the VA for his wake, as folded in a display case. The items remained right there until 2014, when the house was sold and mom moved to Silvercrest.

Getting back to the point, my parents were pragmatists, and seldom made frivolous expenditures. In this spirit, it seemed appropriate to me to bury their ashes together in the place they'd originally chosen. Yesterday this was done.

It also was the best place, with an adjacent shade tree and enough distance between grave and highway to ensure peace for reflection. To my mind, a crisp early April morning was ideal for dispelling jitters by walking around the cemetery.

Springtime is all about renewal, and the many familiar names on the tombstones weren't depressing or funereal at all; rather, they brought back cherished memories of childhood, sports and school.

These were people who influenced me when I was a child. I looked up to them. They're gone, but many of them as yet exist in my head -- and my heart.

I thought about those chairs in Our Town, Thornton Wilder's play. Throughout my mom's final illness and death, I found myself thinking back to origins, about my youth in Georgetown. In physical terms, I've never lived very far from the place I grew up, though my consciousness has tended to reside thousands of miles away.

This has been by choice, and that's likely the way it will stay, but yesterday I may finally have started making peace with the past. We're all making a journey, and we'll all come full circle in the end. There's plenty of spirituality to be found in this life, whether or not one subscribes to a religious perspective ... and each to his or her own.

It has been a sad, exhilarating, challenging, rewarding, moving and numbing year so far. Life goes on, and so do we.

Georgetown, look not to NA's Bicentennial Park as a harbinger of revitalization. Beak-wetting? That's another matter entirely.

A fitting and genuine national landmark in Georgetown.

When I was a kid, Georgetown was a place that had an identity of its own. Perhaps more importantly, until 1967 Georgetown had a high school, which was folded into Floyd Central amid the consolidation trends of the 1960s.

If you ask me, Georgetown's identity crisis began just then, and has proceeded apace during the subsequent half-century.

I'm supportive of any plausible suggestion to restore the "there" to there, but if hopes for renewal hinge on the creation of a boondoggle akin to New Albany's Bicentennial Park, I'd recommend overt and continuing skepticism.

In short, as we discussed exhaustively in 2012, Bicentennial Park's design makes little sense according to any coherent criteria, apart from being an excellent way to spend more than $800,000 on flawed symbolism.

Bicentennial Park, Part One: "Whom Does Design Really Serve?"

Bicentennial Park, Part Two: "When did the public input process into this park's location, imagined functions, design, and construction occur?"

Park comparisons get worse: Breaking ground on an overpriced copy.

Legacy Square? Nah, pie are round, cornbread are square.

Yes, folks certainly enjoy Bicentennial Park when summertime concerts are staged there, but these spectacles cannot take place without an ongoing weekly subsidy from City Hall -- thousands of dollars per event, spent over and over again just to make the park functional for a use that apparently no one bothered anticipating.

Good luck, Georgetown. The single best question residents might be asking themselves is how one restores vibrancy to a bedroom community primarily maintained as a component of a pervasive culture of auto-centrism. Just imagine if residents of Georgetown and places like it could make the suburban/regional transit station a centerpiece of its renewal.

One thing's for sure: If a single New Albany city official appears at your gates to offer advice, you'd be wise to send him or her packing.

Georgetown Downtown Revitalization Plan presented to the public; Plan includes economic, building and community design recommendations, by Danielle Grady (News and Tribune)

 ... That space could be a park, like Bicentennial Park in New Albany, possibly with temporary stages, playgrounds and a splash pad. A “far out” future plan, for after the town square is finished is what McCllelan's dubbed “Georgetown Village.”

We've heard of stripper poles, but this sidewalk pole is a marvel of genuine INDOT innovation.

NA Confidential tends to restrict its gaze to New Albany, but when the Green Mouse received this photograph from a Georgetown resident, it seemed too weirdly instructive to ignore. The submission is appreciated.

It is at the corner of Walts Road. INDOT is paving the highway through Georgetown. Under Title 5 they have to put in ramps. Georgetown has nothing to do with (the pole). It is all on INDOT. My guess is if they can get away with this they will, hoping that when all said and done Georgetown will have to go to the expense to get it moved.

Goodness gracious, even John Rosenbarger hasn't commissioned anything this bizarre. INDOT can be inspiration, all right, as in this recent New Albany episode.

City engineer Larry Summers and INDOT explain why there is no crosswalk at Main and W. 1st Streets (1 of 2).

It reminds me of the old saying in the USSR during Stalin's rule:

"Engineers -- can't live with 'em, but there's always Siberia."

Historic home for sale in Georgetown. DNA probably approves this message.

From this ...

... to this.

Among other things, the past few weeks have been spent transitioning my mom into her new assisted living quarters at the Silvercrest development. She's up on the top floor. Remember when Silvercrest's future was uncertain? Now it's plush; as the Rutles sang, all you (or Matt Chalfant) need is cash.

Anyone looking for a home in the country? The house pictured in the first photo above is on the National Register of Historic Publican Places as the acreage where the Potable Curmudgeon was raised -- not, as was pointed out earlier, where I "grew up." The Paul Kiger Metro Group is listing it, and the pertinent information is available on-line. I hope the house lands in the right hands.

What a year, and it's only May.

Brewery events season starts now, with RiverRoots in Madison, and next weekend's Boomtown Ball. Next thing we know, it'll be Harvest Hellcoming. There's a downtown taproom business to reinvent, and last week, one of our cats (Veronica "Bugg" Buggsworth) passed away. She'll be missed.

Perhaps by autumn, there'll be time to properly mourn, but the curious thing about all of it is that mourning does not seem merited. Rather, new beginnings seem to be popping up everywhere. Amid the understandable disappointment as it pertains to Bank Street Brewhouse, there is a feeling of liberation and renewal. We tend to pay lip service to the need for change, but often find it difficult to embark on the journey, except that some times, the journey comes to you, whether you requested it, or not.

Many thanks for the many comments, memories and critiques. I'm trying to read and acknowledge each one; apologies if I've missed yours.

One tile in a vast mosaic.

I caught a Louisville Bats game last week with a close friend who I’ve known since kindergarten, and during the course of our nine-inning chat, names of people we haven’t seen in years were mentioned, going all the way back to our formative years in Georgetown.

It got me thinking about how very strange it sometimes feels to try and quantify elapsed time, which the history buff in me insists on doing even if the rewards are scant.

Thirty-five or more years ago, a collection of townspeople were part of my everyday existence, even if their presence usually was peripheral. Growing up in a small burg like Georgetown did not mean you necessarily knew every single person, but it meant that someone close to you did, and so you knew a little something about everyone. It was insular, to say the least.

This circle of acquaintances and hearsay began widening once we packed off to Floyd Central High School, and it has continued getting bigger ever since. These days, my world is far-flung, and we're all seemingly connected.

I have 1,700 friends on Facebook, although I truly “know” perhaps a quarter of them in any relevant, non-tangential sense. There are hundreds of others who regularly come into one or both of my businesses, and they, too, are mostly unknown to me on a close, personal basis.

Quite a few of them are far younger than me, placing them even further from the specific center of gravity in which we existed while growing up. At the time, this milieu seemed not very far removed from its immediate past. My father was a veteran of World War II, which were the formative years of his life, so naturally my own childhood reads like an extension of his early adulthood, far closer to 1945 than 1965.

Obviously, Georgetown residents of his generation or older all had lived through The War, whether as soldiers or homefront civilians – heavens, the senior citizens remembered World War I and Prohibition. When I was a kid, it had only been two decades since war’s end. By contrast, as a man, I’m accustomed to waiting twenty years for a new Van Halen album.

In 2012, it’s been 47 years since 1965, twice as long as those two decades, and it has been 67 years since the war itself ended. I still tend to think that things like this bear some measure of importance, but then again, I’m now chronologically older than my father and his contemporaries were during the time when looked up to them, literally and figuratively, as a child.

What brought all of this to the front of my lobes is a fellow named Bob Deirth, who died the other day at the age of 67. Bob wasn’t from Georgetown, but when I was young, he lived there, in a wood frame house right on the main drag. He had a wife and a couple of boys, worked at Bremner Biscuit (sic), and was a tremendous sports fan. Our paths crossed one summer when he was the part-time overseer of the baseball park, around which much of Georgetown’s social life revolved, and I was hired to be a temporary groundskeeper.

In retrospect, it was damned bucolic, and I got along just fine with Bob, a fellow I barely knew before then. Later that same year, a friend and I painted the exterior of Bob’s house. I can’t say we did a very good job of it, and the house needed more work than we were able to put into it, but he seemed satisfied.

I don’t recall seeing Bob again after 1985 or thereabouts, by which time my interests had shifted far, far away from my hometown even if my residence had not. Reading about his death, it amazes me to consider that when we first met, and I was an 18-year-old raking the infield, he was only 33 or perhaps 34 years of age. I could have sworn he was older than that, which probably says more about wacky youthful perceptions than anything else.

That’s about all I can tell you about Bob, so this doesn’t qualify as a very informative eulogy. That’s okay, because it wasn’t intended to be. His face and occasional acquaintance survive in my memory, and they will, alongside images and recollections of so many others like him, until I pass in the same direction as he.

Part Four of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

Don Lopp, county planner, is designated to speak for the county. This despite the fact that Georgetown has asked the county to butt out of the matter.

Lopp: We've applied for federal money. Minimum 7 months, practically 13 months before they can proceed to purchase properties, which the county has agreed to pay for under the settlement agreement dumping the Edwardsville/O'Brien property that faced such opposition by residents who opposed annexation...and that Judge Cody pretty much supported under the law.

Three western sites have been identified. Stimulus funds answer should come in ????? Site reviews, geology, environmental impact statement PROCESS has been initiated. 7 of 9 of the processes are under way....DNR, etc.

Lopp: County invited River Hills to contribute an income survey to get entitlement (CDBG) monies. Claims that Georgetown is just short of qualifying for CDBG money unless they find more poor people.

Locating plant outside corporate limits is no longer being litigated. Settlement pays for site acquisition.

Lopp still speaking: Riverboat money will pay for site up to $1.4 million. If rural development money is available, perhaps an option to buy $350,000 site for land acquisition.

Caesar: We need unified government. But...is $1.4 million enough to do this? Lopp: That price buys out the O'Brien property AND the site acquisition, plus $1 million already expended by Georgetown (which is built into the current rates to households).

Andrews assures that a revenue bond, supported by rates, will be forthcoming once a site is acquired.

Gonder: What about the bad, low-flow, tiny pipes? Andrews: Over time, we'll have to rip up the whole city and re-pipe it. Cost - $3.5 million just to build the sewer plant.

Messer: How close to making this happen? Andrews/Lopp: Town is holding up the rural development application. The county has done everything necessary to get the River Hills money.

Price: Sounds to me like they can't afford this. Commissioners, have you considered a global problem.

Freiberger: That's why we opposed the O'Brien site. The western side of Georgetown is where you want to put a FLoyd County sewer plant.

Messer: How long until plant is running? Andrews: Best case, three years, and we've already begun.

Coffey defers to sewer board to decide whether an accommodation can be made.

Much discussion of "secret" proposals made by Georgetown, which council, council's counsel, and sewer board president say they've never seen these secret proposals.

Coffey DECLARES 60-day moratorium on imposition of billing to Georgetown. No one seems to object, except Lopp insists that county be included in negotiations.

Stewart: If we can take away the fine of $450,000...

Messer says you've been given a break already.

Gary Brinkworth (sewer board member), explains the so-called "penalty." Georgetown decided to stay on the system. Pay $800,000 to extend, then pay us for the sewer credits we've given up. This is not a fine. It is the cost of sewer credits. Part of the $450,000 is a $100,000 arrearage unpaid, but delayed. So now it's $350,000, instead of $700,000 that would have been paid to set up Georgetown for full capacity.

This is not a penalty. It's the unpaid billing that would have been forgiven if Georgetown got off of New Albany's system.

And that's it. Fairly anticlimactic, yet filled with interesting tidbits of attitude, fact, and long-term political objectives.

I hope I've given you a fair verbatim recap of the evening.

No one spoke for the residents of New Albany. I would invite readers to mine the gems from this.

Unfortunately, this city has no verbatim transcript that is publicly available. No radio, no TV, just the minutes taken by an overburdened transcriber, the city clerk.

As Mr. Suddeath said this week, too bad no one from New Albany was present. Lots of folks from the origin city of NAC's senior editor, but no stories from them.

hnnnnnnnnnnnnh.

Part Three of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

Now, at last, the attorney for Georgetown takes the podium and asks for a slowdown, a Q & A process.

Basically, he says its regrettable that there wasn't much cooperation and that we need a global, consultative process where we're not shooting each other up.

Missed opportunities. New Albany Sewer Board was too antagonistic to Georgetown. Can't we all get along? More listening? More cooperation between city and county and let little Georgetown get off the hot plate?

"Our budget is minuscule. WE CAN'T GO TO OUR EDIT rate to subsidize sewer rates."

Editorial: That's the point.

Mr. Gonder: Isn't the per capita income in Georgetown higher than New Albany's? Yes, it is, all concede.

But, says attorney, it's a hardship to the poor people. Something should be done. That would have to be picked up by the other people some way.

Editorial: The obvious conclusion is that NEW ALBANY's people should pick up the slack.


Lawyer calls for "Q and A," while filibustering and making his closing argument.

Still waiting for Qs.

New Albany charges Georgetown, not the households. Georgetown has to pay for everything.

Georgetown says they will pay more, to the extent that they can. At the same time, lawyer is saying Georgetown should be paying less.

Georgetown budget for internal sewer operations is $85,000 a month. Yet, G-town pays $3,000 a month, out of altruism, not contract, for chemicals to treat their effluent. All done "to accommodate New Albany," and oh yeah, to keep our pipes from corroding.

Stan Robison asks why city council is involved, as a legal matter. Buchanan says the council is not being asked to raise a rate, under the statute, but rather to affirm the contractual change of Georgetown from wholesale to retail.

Lawyer Andrews (!): Georgetown doesn't have the money to pay its contractual obligations. Therefore, Georgetown's position is they will sue and allege that the contract is illegal.

Robison says his job is to counsel the council and he does not know why "negotiations" haven't come to the council if this is a council problem.

Editorial: The question arises. Is this a "rate increase" under the statute?

Mr. Coffey says the council sympathizes with Georgetown, but asks Andrews to stick to the legal issue of the rate increase.

Andrews: One county where we all live. We ought to be talking to each other.

Zursch: How can Georgetown afford a plant of their own if they can't afford to pay these fees?

Andrews: I think it's better for Georgetown to work with New Albany (stay on the system), take advantage of the economies of scale of New Albany, and drop the whole idea of an independent sewer system.

Gonder: Is Georgetown out of sewer credits? Andrews: We're almost out. We're committed, long-term, to giving out all our credits once all developments are completed.

Robison: Is it your position that the contract is illegal? Andrews: No, No, No. I apologize for implying that. The rate provisions, by "doubling" them, are unjustifiable.

Robison: Why are we here?

Pat Mac: Why are we doing this when we're in the midst of a lawsuit against our own sewer board?

Robison: It's not really litigation. We're asking for an interpretation of statute.

Buchanan: We're not setting rates (here), we're changing classification of Georgetown, by agreement. That's all.

Price: WHy are your rates so high?

Andrews: We don't pay down the rates with tax money like New Albany. Your ratepayers don't appreciate you enough for keeping those rates low.

INSERT Editorial comments HERE.

When Mr. Price starts talking, you know the meat has been plucked from the bone.

Mr. Andrews: We should build a county site that's most efficient. Spend twice as much money

Mr. D.A. Andrews, attorney at law, is a smooth, obviously intelligent attorney. He also is obviously representing his client aggressively and at the same time trying to set countywide policy.

Little violins come out now as Mr. Andrews talks about how Georgetown must battle through litigation (annexation). He says "maybe" someday it would make financial sense for Georgetown to go off the system, but concedes it doesn't make sense now. Nonetheless, he pleads for city-county cooperation to save the ratepayers of Georgetown.

Ron Carroll, sewer board president, wants to know where is your site?

Andrews says that under federal law we can't even negotiate a purchase agreement until federal money is locked up. G-town is days away from completed appraisal on one site.

Coffey: Mr. Carroll is "very astute businessman." In all fairness, sewer board MUST have benchmarks before conceding on contract.

PatMac: Give us something concrete.

DianeB: Do you want the plant or not?

Andrews: The residents just want lower sewer rates. They can't walk away from investment. They want autonomy. They want to pay their own way. (But they want New Albany to pay for it.)

Carroll: Plant enables growth. Georgetown can't grow without a plant. G-town must make the investment.

Part Two of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

NA Sewer board has no idea what the G-town sewer capital sinking fund applies to user rates. $6 million? $18 million?

"We are not the reason their rate is rising toward $100."

That was Ed Wilkinson, who recently joined the board for the sewers.

Sulfides and ammonia are very high (I'll resist the diet jokes).

For whatever reason, Georgetown's effluent contains VERY high toxics that must be removed. Why? I dunno.

Mr. Gahan asks: This increase is about $15 per household? Yes, says Mr. Wilkinson.

Ah-hah. Flat system, slow flow, the longer it's in the system, the more decay, the more toxic chemistry. That explains it. Not the ingestion of unusual substances, but the "long pipe" decomposition.

I'm trying not to inject my opinions here, but just report undisputed facts.

In NA, there are multiple pumping stations. The Georgetown system, primarily, is gravity-fed. The slowness adds to the decomposition and corrosion. Nonetheless, it all flows downhill.

NOW

The county commission defers to the Georgetown town council member, Mr. Stewart.

G-town rates are "set" by Umbaugh, as an independent accounting firm.

Base rate is $27.65
plus $9 unit rate, based on 5,000 gallons of effluent per month.

OK, I'm already lost. Georgetown, we're told, has an old, rundown system. Operating their system is costly. $89,000 plus per month to operate. Added to that is the New Albany charge for actually treating the system.

So, 90,000 dollars divided by 1,200 people = $10 a month, plus, per ratepayer/householder.

$1.5 retirement bond on old sewer system...
plus bond anticipation notes on future system

Arrgh!

I'm sorry, my mind is much more lineal than I thought. Maybe the council can understand this...I can't. It's too disjointed and all over the map for me to follow.

Mr. Stewart says fair rate is significantly cheaper than even what we pay in N.A. He says it should be $1.09 per unit.

LAWSUIT THREAT. That's the first one tonight. Stewart threatens lawsuit that will hold off any payment for years.

190,000 gallons a day sent from Georgetown. Of 8 million gallons per day for the whole system.

Stewart: We treat our sewage not because we're required to by contract, but because we're nice guys. New Albany asked us to do it, and we did it. We don't have to do so, no matter how corrosive it is.

I'm honestly lost. I'm trying to "live-e-mail" this thing, but I'm hearing gobbledygook.

"Horrible" penalties, horrible rates. Assertion by Stewart that these rates are illegal. If we signed it (old town council), it was illegal. YOU CAN'T ENFORCE IT.

This parrots the legal position of the town's lawyer, who clearly intends to challenge it as "illegal" to treat Georgetown as a retail account.

Sorry...the last ten minutes have been a blur. I checked my e-mail, read the NA Confidential blog comments.

Now, Mr. Price is up for his first at-bat.

"It's steel, politics." Six days before the election, Georgetown agreed to this contract.

Per Stewart: Original contract: $1.9 million a year for 500,000 gallons a day flow.

Georgetown then realized they could do it themselves for less money and asked out of the 25-year contract.

To do so, they were required to pay $800,000 to New Albany, which they did, to unwind a 25-year commitment. In addition, penalties and rate increases would be applied if Georgetown didn't get "off" the system.

Georgetown now says the county should pay to move the plant to the west of town instead of building it at G-town's "Edwardsville" site.

The Edwardsville site is dead, died, and gone. The annexation won't happen. This is me, Randy, saying this. That dog won't hunt.

The west o' town site is the only site. As we listen, there is no plant designed or being built.

Stewart: Give us more time!

Mr. Stewart, as before, is begging, threatening, and poor-mouthing. Claims if anyone sues Georgetown, they have a four-year get-out-of-free card in the contract.

Diane B: DO you actually have a site?
Stewart: No. We have three sites we've talked about that we might offer on, as of May, 2009.

OMG moment!

Stewart: Georgetown doesn't have $350,000 to buy a piece of land. Unless the county pays for it, we can't buy land to build a sewer plant.

Mr. Z: What assurances can you give New Albany?
Stewart: Everything legally possible?

Mr. Z is taking the G-town attorney to the woodshed right now.

Semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

---

This is The Bookseller live-e-mailing what IS a work session (NO VOTE, just talk.)

We have no visual access to the clock...Mr. Coffey is reticent to raise the movie screen unless he's blamed for ripping the silver.

Ron Carroll, recently from the Cardiac Unit, Ed Wilkinson, Sewer Board member, and attorney Lee Buchanan, who represents the Sewer Board, begin the presentation.

First discussion is about the ordinance itself.

A 2005 agreement to provide service to Georgetown for 20 years was renegotiated. G'town elected to withdraw and negotiate a new agreement in 2006 (Amendment 1) and build their own sewage treatment plant. This 30-month agreement (ended Feb. 28, 2009), subsequently extended to date June 1, 2009.

By contract, G-town sewage will continue to be treated. However, they agreed to pay a new "retail" rate instead of the prior "wholesale" rate. Those words are terms of art, not legal or commercial terms.

Georgetown does not pay the fringe 150% rate, but a lesser rate based on their own capital expenditures. Even after this June 1 bumper, the rate is lower than, say, the folks in Gobbler's Knob pay...I'm told it's called "Cobbler's Crossing."

Mr. Buchanan assertively rebuffs the council's (Mr. Zurschmiede) attempt to discuss the "penalty" of $450,000. That contract penalty is, by Mr. Buchanan's reckoning, not subject to council approval, denial, or even comment. That "penalty" for failing to remove the sewage from the system, is not subject to council oversight.

Mr. Coffey asks: How is this related to the need for "sewer credits." We invite more knowledgeable people

"I don't want the people of Georgetown to be caught up...I don't want them to pay. It has been said that we're subsidizing them...Well, I don't think that's right. They're treating their own (?)" MR. COFFEY.

Georgetown, by consensus, contributes 2% of the system's sewerage.

JACK MESSER: Is this treated sewage? Buchanan: No, it's not.

That refutes Mr. Coffey's dictum, but the G-town folks say it is (partially) treated.

$6.74 per 1,000 cubic gallons is the new rate.

Mr. Z says: It's not as simple as the rate. There are lots of complications. If it were simple, it would be simple to calculate the costs.

Mr. McLaughlin: Is the type of "byproduct" from G-town "more offensive?" Buchanan says G-town stuff has higher sulfur (oxide) content is higher, more corrosive.

Remember, folks, that the "other" side will be speaking next.

Ed Wilkinson (newest sewer board member) stands to discuss the chart he handed out showing the first four months of this year, showing flow rates and basic math regarding fees, rates, charges...It seems we're drifting toward rates that are unreasonable for anybody. We want to establish a base line for flow rates, anomalies, etc.

On the basis of the arithmetic...I took the flow rate, actual, the total bill each month, divided it by the $3.11 per 1,000 gallons and assumed either 1.200 or 1,150 customers in G-town.

We (New Albany Sewer Board) charge G-town $14.12 per household in January, 2009. Georgetown charged its residents $74.20...for each "unit" of 1,000 gallons.

New Albany charges actual flow rate (under 5,000 units). G-town estimates 5,000

Wilkinson says NA charges $27 to $30 per month per household under the new rate. G-town rate includes a sinking fund for past and future capital spending.

Georgetown adds up to $47 over and above what New Albany charges.

A thing or two about flushing to teach them people in Georgetown.

The city council will hold a work session tonight to discuss the city's default topic of this and all other millennia, the monetary impact of effluence, i.e., the sewers.

In this case, it's all about sewer rates, and what Georgetown should be expected to pay.

Speaking of misspent EDIT monies, does anyone (Dan Coffey? Jeff Gahan?) have a current estimate as to how many economic development dollars are wasted on politically-motivated sewer rate subsidies in New Albany?

Doesn't Georgetown have economic development monies that it might merrily flush downhill in similar fashion? If so, couldn't the town use those funds to subsidize its own rate payers by turning over the cash to New Albany, where these nickels and dimes could join our own misused EDIT proceeds in not being used for economic development, but rather as de facto provender for future mayoral campaigns on the part of current councilmen?

That's a need, not a want -- right, Mr. Price? And we'd be getting twice the non-bang, non-development for our bucks that way, wouldn't we?

It's just a thought.

It either flows or it doesn't: Another evening in Council chambers.

As reported by the Tribune and C-J, the City Council will this evening consider whether or not to hold Georgetown accountable for a sewer deal it struck with New Albany some years ago, raising the town's sewer rate and instituting penalties as agreed for failing to begin construction on its own sewer plant within the specified time frame.

Though it's now being billed as some sort of unfair rate hike by opponents, Georgetown sought this deal and hasn't lived up to it. After four years including an extension, town officials can't even say for certain where their plant will be built, let alone when. Perhaps the sewer board should dispatch ROCK representatives to Council chambers to point out that people tend to make use of the sewer system behind closed doors with their pants down. The rest of us should probably start advocating for an independent sewer district.

In other waste handling news, City Attorney Shane Gibson's review and correction of New Albany codes continues with Shane asking the Council to address deficiencies in 150.101 and 150.103, both dealing with cleanliness of premises. Amendments to these codes would clear up confusion in the violation notification and response process and name the Board of Public Works as the Appeals Board, which is currently mentioned but not defined. The proposed amendments are much needed, overdue measures.

The 2009 CDBG one-year action plan is up for adoption and CM John Gonder will introduce a resolution promoting the Smart Growth America program.

A public hearing and special council meeting to vote on the appropriation of $2 million in EDIT funds for paving has been announced for Thursday, May 28. The hearing will be at 7:15 pm and the meeting at 7:30 pm in the usual location.

Those interested in two-way, pedestrian and bike friendly street reclamation might want to consider raising their voices.


The agenda, provided by City Clerk Marcey Wisman, is here.

OUCH!!! Mama Said That Burner Was Hot!

As the April showers taper off and the May flowers burst open in all of their finery I note that one had best enjoy the peaceful refreshing evenings on the back deck swing while they last.

I’m reminded that the long hot daze of summer is just around the corner and if rumored upcoming events have any credibility, the 3rd Floor Assembly Room air conditioning system is going to get quite a workout.

Not to worry though as Trish promises to have plenty of Sierra Nevada on hand for the afterglows at Studio’s.

As I understand it Mayor England has been renegotiating terms with Southern Indiana Waste Systems in order that they take a more active role in collecting refuse other than just household garbage.

That would include yard waste, brush, the occasional sofa, and the like. Of course this service would require a stipend increase in monthly fees.

The implementation of such would free up the Street Department to return to their duties of maintaining New Albany’s streets, signs, and other infrastructure.

The other hot button issue that may very well be on this Thursday’s agenda for our Common Council is a proposed Sewer Rate increase for Georgetown customers.

You can link to the Tribune article here; http://www.news-tribune.net/local/local_story_135111700.html

The jest of it is Georgetown has been given several extensions to the agreed deadline for them to transfer their waste water to their own treatment plant thus freeing up capacity for New Albany to move forward with its own development plans.

As I understand it as long as they are feeding affluent into our system, we are under strict scrutiny from the EPA looking for capacity overloads.

Were that to happen for any reason, we’d be back in lockdown stage in terms of our own growth & expansion.

For a variety of their own in house reasons Georgetown has been unable to begin construction on their treatment plant and our Sewer Board has decided further extensions without an increase in fees would be unwise for New Albany.

Of course all these efforts and many others as well require Common Council approval prior to becoming viable. And the odds are??

As you can readily see the summer is shaping up to be a warm one on the Sunny Side of the Ohio!

So what think ye of the above proposals?

As for me, I’ve no problem paying a few pennies a month more to see the trash gone.

On the other matter although I have no beef with the residents of Georgetown, I don’t see the wisdom continuing to treat their affluent if it risks us losing the ground we’ve gained in our ongoing effort to pacify the EPA.

All in all, I’d suggest coming early for the good seats and bring your own palm leaf fans!