Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What's Wrong with Iron River 090706 - Part 2

I received the following email from Iron River
City Manager John Archocosky which I publish
intact in order to answer it in public:

=======================================
From: "John Archocosky"
To:
Subject: What's Wrong with Iron River 00706
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:01:33 -0500

Good morning Bill,

I received the hard copy of your article.

You’re right; the Rodeo banner crossing US2
after the wind caught it certainly did not
look good. The problem actually stemmed from
the fact that the banner was not designed to
fit between the supporting cables that have
been in place for years.

The city did not order the banner nor were
we asked what size it should be to fit the
cable arrangement. When the banner arrived,
the city crew did the best they could to
secure it with the ties that were provided
and it appeared to work fine for the first
few days that it was displayed.

Unfortunately, when the stronger wind started
to blow over the weekend, the ties provided
were not sufficient to hold the banner in place.
As soon as the DPW schedule permitted, the city
crew went back and had to reinstall the cable
system so it could accommodate the nonconforming
banner that was provided.

As I’m sure you know, it is not a simple task
to install anything over a US highway. Special
permits are required which must be processed
through MDOT. Permits require minimum ground
clearance as well as other safety related
conditions that needed to be met. As the crew
would have to be working in the middle of the
US2 traffic lanes to reinstall the cables, it
required coordinating the crew’s time with that
of the police department for traffic control
and our employees’ safety. Considering what
had to be done I feel the City of Iron River,
who was donating its time and effort, responded
to a non-emergency situation in a reasonable
timeframe.

When I received the copy of your article I
wasn’t sure if you wanted an explanation or
simply wanted to use it as an opportunity to
complain about the City of Iron River. In
either case "you now have the rest of the
story".

Criticism will always be accepted here and
even appreciated when it is offered in a
constructive manner for the betterment of
the City. It would be nice however, to
receive some positive reinforcement from
time to time for all the things done well
by the city staff and employees.

Thanks for your observation on the banner.
Sorry we never seem to meet your expectations.

John

======================================

I noticed that the initial repair was made to
the Rodeo Banner within a few days after John
Archocosky received the hard copy of my
previous article about this banner. This
is a busy season for me, so it took a few
days for me to have a camera along when I
drove through once again. From what I could
see, the city crew shortened the lower cable
somewhat and installed two spreaders to make
the cables, spreaders, and banner operate as
a single system as this photo shows:



It now works.

For comparison, here is one of my archive photos of a
Florence County Fair banner for 2007 hanging over
US2 with approximately the same length of cables.
I provide this as a model of what can be achieved. They
have exactly the same difficulties in Florence County
as we have in Iron River when it comes to this matter.



But on to other issues John raises.

If anyone cares to go back and look, every criticism I
have made concerning any Iron County governmental
unit always had a problem with an available solution.
Yet mostly my comments have fallen on deaf ears (meaning
solutions were not undertaken) with responsive complaints
at what appears to be an unending stream of criticism from
Bill Vajk co-mingled with the whispered rumor that "Bill
Vajk is out to destroy Iron River." That gives rise to a good
chuckle on my part.

I hasten to point out that my upbringing, including a
parochial school (St. Paul's at Princeton, NJ, see their
web page on the internet, still a fine school!) sent home
a report card every semester that had a comment at the
bottom in the beautiful script of the "Sisters of Mercy"
that said, "There's always room for improvement."

And so there is. The routine praise we received at the
hands of the nuns was the grades we earned. The same
thing is true of all employees, everywhere. They earn
a paycheck in exchange for which they are expected
to perform a "job well done." It is expected. In fact,
it is demanded, even more from government employees
than in any other setting.

Praise and positive reinforcement were, in the sane
society that existed before the "baby boomer culture"
came of age, reserved for extraordinary performance.
I identify this expectation of praise for doing what's
expected and what people are paid to do as a cultural
phenomena belonging to your generation, John. Are
prison guards expected to clap every prisoner on the
back every day and praise them for not having shanked
anyone in the past 24 hours? Where does all this
constant praise requirement come from?

Along with the classic report card footnote, there was
one other unremitting message that we were hammered
with that apparently fell by the wayside for your
generation. It is a brief statement that, "Anything worth
doing is worth doing well." A later version that I started
hearing in the 1970's went, "If you don't have time to
do it right now, when will you have time to do it over?"

As far as never meeting my expectations, I am alone
in these only insofar as voicing them goes. This
community is an old mining culture that was well
taught to shut up, do your job, and be grateful for
what the company provides. That paradigm continues
intact today with government replacing "the company,"
for the most part. There is a lot of seething undercurrent
in the region that remains silent for the most part rather
than risk getting labeled a troublemaker.

Look at the voter rejection of the Iron River Township
millage request in the last election. This is, for the most
part, the only protest the general population will mount,
and even then with great difficulty. And look at the
township's response, a move to create a new "fee" for
"sewer availability." Good grief, what's this community
coming to.

A label of "troublemaker" doesn't bother me because
my background includes not only a good educational
background, but also a personal history of successful
risk taking in military/industrial research and development
world. I found out at a young age that when you go for
the gold all the time, you make friends and enemies, and
the individuals in those positions are apt to shift back and
forth with as much volatility as the weather. I keep my eye
on the goal. The chips can fall as they will. In my opinion
if one worries about everyone's feelings, nothing is ever
achieved. There is some evidence in the history of our
personal interactions that you understand, and practice,
this same philosophy yourself, albeit sometimes mistakenly
(that's probably the consequence of your personal
experience being limited to typical midwestern cultures.)

In wrapping up this exchange it probably makes good sense
to tell the reader a bit more about the world outside Iron
County. I grew up at Princeton, New Jersey, and off and
on resided there till 1974 when I moved out of the region
permanently. Starting sometime in the 1960's, major
corporations that had midwestern and west coast operations
began promoting executives from Chicago, Detroit, St.
Louis, and the like, to their corporate offices in New York.
These folks settled mostly in New Jersey as daily rail
commuters into the city. By rail, a Princeton area resident
could find himself in most midtown Manhattan offices in
about an hour. Even in Chicago that's not considered a
bad commute.

Most of those promoted to New York corporate offices
lasted about a year, and then they packed up their homes
and returned to whence they had come. The New York
business models are a whole lot more demanding than those
of the midwest, and the midwesterners simply couldn't
acclimate themselves to the demands and the pace.

Anyone who grew up here in Iron County, let alone has
lived here better part of a lifetime, experiences pretty
much the same culture shock if they move to Chicago.

What I'm trying to say, John, is that I am two major
cultural paradigms away from living here contentedly
and quietly, because where I come from, and where I
live (internally) my expectations are those of a
mainstream progressive America that demands a
number of things that the folks who live here all their
lives all too often seem willing to give up. These are

> constitutions limit government powers

> the rule of law is necessary

> unless handicapped, earn your keep honestly and honorably

You'd think these are simple rules to live by, but
in Iron County it appears to be very difficult for
some.

Unfortunately, it seems I will soon be in litigation with
the City of Iron River as well as perhaps some officers
of the City and Iron County, and potentially with Iron
River Township as well if the currently envisioned
sewer ordinance revisions become a reality. These could
be settled at a much smaller cost to the taxpayers by
negotiations, but there's a generalized arrogance in Iron
County governments that seems to prevent such solutions.

best regards,

Bill Vajk

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