The infrastructure of the small towns of Montana -- the water, sewer, electrical, gas conduits that support our houses -- are about a hundred years old. Every town employee knows about the emergency pipe breaks, the increased but unmet state standards, the public insistence that dust and potholes take a higher priority than the town wells. To some engineering firms, this looked like a gold mine opportunity in a time of contractors‘ drought.
Coming to Valier, they laid out their claim that the town was going to be in dire straits unless they contracted for some upgrades, among them a new water tower. When eyebrows went up, they rolled out the usual big gun of modern business: fear. They produced charts to show that if there were a major fire in Valier (let’s say at the school, which is probably the biggest structure next to the grain elevator), the present water tower would be exhausted before the fire went out and all the children would burn. And besides there were all these grants and programs and low-interest loans -- a little diligent paperwork and the whole thing would practically cost nothing at all. What’s not to like?
Another force, an outsider named Tom moved to town. He made his living selling sprinkler systems, but he sounded like a water engineer. He questioned the wells, he questioned whether there were backflow valves to prevent the herbicides from the aerial spraying business at the airport from getting into the school water fountains. (The county, their attention attracted by the commotion, discovered that county property was being used for free. Poison is one thing -- free-loading is another! The aerial spraying business had to move out of town.) Tom crunched numbers constantly -- wringing them out of the town clerk. He gave out lots of free advice. Since we’ve had a new and more indulgent mayor, he has volunteered to approach the county commissioners to see whether they would plow the town roads. (He doesn’t know that the county seat thinks it IS the county.) Then he became the purchasing agent for the town’s new plowing tractor. (No word on the amount of the customary broker’s fee.)
Before her election the mayor had been wandering along the idyllic lake next to the town and discovered that the little nesting island had been invaded by a vicious ATV killer who smashed every ground nest, mostly seagulls. What she didn’t know was that the lake AND the island belong to the Pondera Canal company -- it’s part of their irrigation system. So, full of indignation, she called the Audubon Society. The feds got into it. The Canal company said if that lake was going to be so much trouble, they’d just bulldoze it the next time they lowered the water level. In the meantime people had figured out who the egg-breaker was. In the end everyone sort of backed off.
The next major kafuffle came when the mayor was actually elected (no one else ran) but was faced with a Good Ol’ Boy council. Another outsider had been preaching Union until the three-person work force (including the clerk) had decided they did indeed want to unionize and their spokesman came to defend the water master over the length of his yard grass. Yard grass is very important in Valier and not unrelated to water. Etc.
That had about run its course when the council came to a regular meeting and were expected to approve a five-figure bill for street gravel that they had not known about in advance. One of the council members was the local gravel man and he had NOT been asked to bid. The mayor claimed it would be illegal for a member of the town council to sell the town anything. She brought in an expert from a coalition of towns in Montana who agreed. The council brought in a lawyer. The mayor brought in the town lawyer. The two lawyers were clearly embarrassed. This is one of those matters that is best finessed. Too much scrutiny can make a LOT of trouble and lose a lot of business all around, even for lawyers.
The council resigned except for one guy. It was hard to find replacements. The expert from the town coalition had explained that towns could not afford insurance, so they had formed a fund for self-insurance. The kicker was that to be part of that pool, the towns had to agree to abide by the rules of the coalition. Small, dusty, cash-strapped rural villages often get things done without too much attention to details. For instance, the gravel man has the town’s underground pipe maze in his head, because he’s dug most of them up at one time or another. Same with the water master.
By this time the clerk was finding that all these “free” grants and loans required many hours of work to read, fill out, and deliver by deadlines. And there were little details that had to be provided at the cost of the town.
All this time Tom kept up his barrage of advice and analysis. Finally this week he got everyone’s attention. He had read the state legal specifications for the erection of water towers that were stipulated in the late 1800’s. The foundation of a watertower is pillars that rest deep in the ground on a massive block. Each vertical pillar is about twelve feet long, under the ground, and each should have four specific diameter rebar rods through each of them, bottom to top. He had photos that showed only TWO had been installed. HALF.
This news was presented at a town meeting that had been rescheduled several times. No council quorum was present. Tom, the clerk, and I were the only non-council members. “Don’t you dare blog about this,” they said. I gave them a day or so. It was a public meeting and it will go to our pockets.
The water tower construction was stopped because of weather anyway, but now it will be on hold indefinitely. What went wrong with the inspection system that ought to have caught this? Who certified that the work had been done properly? It appears that the pillars will have to be dug up and done over, which Tom cheerfully informed us might probably cost something like $160,000. Will that coalition insurance pick it up? Do we really NEED a second water tower? Where were the city workers while all this was going on? They were supposed to keep thing monitored.
Stay tuned. Both mayors are female and both have had jobs where they oversaw contracts for construction compliance. I look for a lot of social stress fractures.
What cheers me is that I talked to one of the Good Ol’ Boys (he was insulating the town hall -- paid for by an energy grant) who declared fervently how much he loves this town and his excellent record of service as a descendent of the previous long-term mayor. Months ago when there was a public meeting about something or other (probably water) a man who had moved to Valier rather later asked for time to say how much he loved this town. He had tears in his eyes.
Then he left because he didn’t have time for the meeting.
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