Charles Perrault, the French aristocrat who brought the world Mother Goose penned a tale called “The Dragon”.
In it a dragon ruled a kingdom and being a dragon was a pretty mean ruler.
It oppressed the people stealing their crops, livestock and children always until it was challenged by a hero who was mad as hell and wouldn’t take it anymore.
Unfortunately the hero always lost and the oppression remained.
That was until a youth decided that he too would challenge the dragon.
They fought and quite unexpectedly the youth won.
But when the boy opened the treasure room he was blinded by the wealth. As his hands ran through the gold and the gems and the silks he was in heaven. That is until he happened to look at his hands. Instead of human fingers he saw they were reptilian claws.
He was becoming the dragon.
Power corrupts was the moral.
And as morals go it is a pretty good one.
Three hundred years after the tale was first told it appears to be coming true again in Ely.
We have never believed that one side in any fight is wholly right or wholly wrong that is unless the conflict personally involves us.
But in the rail road battle now raging there appears to be a whole lot of grey.
One side is just a little darker grey than the other.
The long strong odor of bad blood between Marty Westland and Mark Bassett is so putrid that it taints and will taint every decision by the Ely City Council vis a vis the rail road.
Mr. Westland should recuse himself from any decision or action the council will take in the future.
And the rail road board should be as transparent. A great job at fund raising should not blind the board from scrutiny.
And the people of Ely should remember that a Good Ol’ Boy is not necessarily bad and a ‘reformer’ is not always above reproach.
As for the original tale it ended with the youth renouncing his corruption and going back to his farm.
Nice ending but we didn’t buy it at five when we first heard it and we ain’t buying it now.
We were wondering with the failure of gas purchase just what new multi-million project West Wendover City would seek to borrow to build.
The moving of the Public Woks Department it turns out.
Another $2 million in public debt.
A cynic might say that the project is up because with the massive public works department something has to get built.
And with city hall, the beautification projects, and just about every thing else completed Why Not?
We ask why.
Has anyone noticed that while public projects keep getting built private projects just are not there?
Instead the number of businesses continue to either close or migrate to Wendover, Utah while Wendover Will continues to wave at the vacant lots along Wendover Boulevard.