Dysmey Blog Archives  >  big weekend for yard work

big weekend for yard work

yardwork

It is supposed to be very cold this week. So this weekend is the time for major yard work.

I have spent all morning and into the early afternoon raking a week's accumulation of leaves and mowing the lawn at the same time. In the end I got the leaves along the curb for the street department to sweep up; and I will be adding more tomorrow, as the Big Maple has plenty more to let fall. My lawn is decent-looking now; and it will probably stay that way, given the grass won't grow anymore until spring.

I tried out my new stepladder to reset some siding and check the gutters. The latter are surprisingly clear of junk. I thought of climbing onto the roof; but I thought the better of it.

basketball court

I also used it to work on the basketball goal. I found that the backboard and support beam are hinged, so that I can lower the basket. The problem is that I cannot raise it and lock it back into place. Well, now that the basket is reachable, I could use it as a clothesline.

That spot between the Big Maple and the shed would be better used as a garage. I already use the court to park my car. I do not know that the folks who lived in my house ten years ago were thinking when they built that basketball court. I know Indiana is the basketball center of the universe, and maybe those folks had kids. But a basketball court is a hefty investment, esp. for folks that (I was told) did not maintain the house itself. Anyway, the people who built the court got their house foreclosed, probably because they could not pay their property taxes, which soared after the big reassessment early this decade.

library

The Friends of the Fairmount Public Library will have its annual meeting next month. The Friends' president has served for three years, since the start of the group, due to a change in the by-laws when nobody was found who could be president last year. Now she wants to step down for sure; and everyone is looking at me to serve as president. I said I would think about it. I will have to buy some postcards to print the announcement of the annual meeting. There will be no announcement in the town paper, which has messed up our advertising for the last time.

more on the library

The governor of Indiana is trying to impose a property tax solution before the commission he appointed had time to prepare its report. This is an obvious attempt to pull another Silverman on the State, as he has been doing since he came to office.

[Silverman was the corporate executive the governor appointed to run the state's motor vehicle bureau. His heavy-handed closure of license branches throughout the State; his forced upgrade of the bureau's complex computer system before it was thoroughly tested; and his impolitic treatment of citizens as if they were corporate peons — these made him so deeply unpopular that he was forced to quit. Pulling a Silverman means to introduce suddenly an important State policy by fiat and without public consultation, as Silverman tried to do with his branch closings.]

The Fairmount Public Library has served the town and township of Fairmount by promoting literacy and by providing reading and viewing materials. The Library has done this without imposing any undue burden on the local taxpayers. It is even attempting to move to a bigger building without having to issue bonds. If there is any rise in the property tax of any Fairmount homeowner, the Library is not to blame.

Having said that, I would like to remind taxpayers that property taxes pay for local government —  government where you live, where you have the greatest say in public affairs. Also, I should remind you that you are ultimately responsible for the rise in property taxes. It is the taxpayer who votes for town board members, for school board members, and for the county council members who appoint library board members. Or, taxpayers don't vote at all. Staying home during election day just because you are disgusted by the antics of President X or Congressman Y or Governor Z (who have nothing to do with local government) is foolish and inexcusable. If you are a non-voter you have yourself to blame for your tax mess.


Posted on the Dysmey Blog on 4 December 2007.