While we applaud the city council’s compassion regarding Nancy Green not paying the franchise money she collected but never passed back to the municipal coffers the action does make us wonder.
If instead of being Nancy Green it was any one of a number of West Wendover businessmen or women would the council have been so accommodating?
We doubt it.
Time and time again we have heard “the law is the law’ or something to that effect as justification when sticking it to a small business owner the council didn’t like.
And that small business owner could only sputter and swear and claim that the law was being applied unfairly and unjustly and in an arbitrary manner.
Well the proof is in the pudding.
Nancy Green may have broken the law by collecting those fees and not paying them to the city. As a reward the city council gave her another four months of grace with only her word that she would come up with about a years worth of payments on April Fools Day.
We only wish the council had been so compassionate with Steve Weinstein when he offered to pay extra taxes to the city just to get his business open. They refused, Weinstein closed before he opened and the city was out hundreds of thousands in annual revenue and some 50 new jobs.
But hey the law is the law.
And we certainly have a lot of them in Wendover.
Indeed we have more laws, rules and regulations than one can shake a stick at and if one doesn’t watch it, watch out.
As it was written the Gas Franchise ordinance was ready made to be a disaster for Wendover Gas.
They won the franchise but since the franchise didn’t give exclusivity it was almost worthless.
The casinos were the first to jump at cheaper rates from trucked in propane and from then it was a slow slide on a slippery slope.
We doubt with the possible exception of the company’s trustee Steve Shute that anyone believes Wendover Gas will exist by the end of 2012.
Perhaps that is why the council was so compassionate.
Another local business will fold and be taken over by the city without the city doing anything provocative.
We usually take a ‘best of times, worst of times’ approach to the passing of a year but even Pollyanna would be hard pressed to say the good evened out the bad in 2011.
In addition to the continuing rough economy 2011 will forever be remembered in Wendover as the year Mickie Costanzo was brutally murdered by a boy who was and is an absolute waste of space.
Unfortunately the wounds of one year are not magically healed by a change of a number. They last. But at least for the Costanzo family they will have the opportunity to see justice done in the trials of Toni Fratto and Kody Patten early next year.
The same cannot be said for Glenn Taylor whose son James was cut down at 23 yet whose killer was not even arrested and a month later given a get out of jail free card.
Like we said 2011 was a on the whole a bad year.
We hope the same will not be said for 2012.
But unlike any previous year we are not overly optimistic.
With the drums of war sounding in Iran, another global economic crisis looming and a nincompoop in the White House who still believes the answer to our nation’s myriad of troubles is a clever catch phrase in a speech even his wife isn’t listening to anymore, there is not a whole lot out there to be really excited about.
On the other hand 2012 will mark the arrival of our first grandchild.
So all might be pretty okay with the world, with a little bit of luck.
Happy New Year
This is off subject but how come the Menorah wasn’t lit this year? At least I didn’t see it. I’m of another faith but I still enjoyed the years past when I attended the ceremony.
Unlike the nativity scenes, menorahs are inherent religious objects meaning you don’t bless them or light them until the holiday of Hanukkah begins. Hanukkah began the 20th this year, thus the lighting ceremony of the nativity scene and christmas tree which occurred during the first week of December was far too early.