Lucky Man and well update

I'm fortunate in that I'm able to work from home at least 2 days a week. If not more. And I'm in a management position, so a lot of my day is spent on conference calls. So when I do work from home, I can walk around with a headset on, tossing stuff in the washer, loading the dishwasher, starting dinner in the oven, making baby food, or picking up baby toys. So Aaron is totally spoiled. And he admitted it last night when he got home... so he is forgiven. For now.

The reason I had everything ready to go when he got home last night, was there was special town meeting on the final bit in the drama that is our current crisis (we were even in the news on this issue, here is the article) - the bankrupt well in our neighborhood. I bitched about it here a little bit, but we used to have a privately owned well that served our community of 187 homes. It was horribly mismanaged and went bankrupt. And now, homes that were not designed to have a well on the property (some people have to dig up their driveways or move sheds or other drastic measures) are being forced to do so at GREAT personal and unplanned expense. The state stepped in and they have been talking about low interest loans for us, and last night was the official town vote to allow us to have these loans - and it did pass, thank god.

But the whole thing raises an interesting point about community. It's interesting to see the way people react to this whole thing. Way back in the beginning of this crisis, the town manager made a statement that 'the whole town should not be responsible for paying for 187 homes, when the rest of the town gets nothing for it'. Now, of course, we weren't asking for the town to PAY for it in total, although there were questions raised if the town could buy the well, but the financial situation of the well made it so it would NEVER ever break even - so it became quickly apparent that wasn't a solution. But in the end, there are many families that are affected by this that do not have $10,000 laying around to pay for drilling their own well. And the well was supposed to have been regulated by the town, and then the state. So now, there are people at risk of their home becoming inhabitable because they can't afford a well?! The state said they would give loans at low interest rates, and it did get passed. The way some people talked about it, since they didn't need a loan, they weren't going to the meeting to vote for it.

Call me crazy - but we are a COMMUNITY. I'm lucky enough to have other options to get the money for our well, even if we are tight on money right now. But, I care if my neighbor ends up without water. I care if this stupid course of events causes undo hardship on others. So Aaron went to the meeting, and most others showed up. Aaron said there were about 300 people there, and 4 voted against giving us the loans. That is a huge stress off our plates. So we can all move forward with the rest of the drilling and trenching and filters and all that bullshit - and the cost should be the same as we were paying for the monthly water bill. Which is great news.