Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Odds & Ends

Odds & ends, bits and pieces of Iron County news that
should receive attention.

Wardo's Closing

We have a community with a collapsing population. The
current estimate is some 12,800 souls living here. The
last of the big stores selling non-essential goods in
the county, Wardo's, is conducting their store closing
sale. With gasoline prices headed well above a $3 per
gallon price, tourism will be down yet again. Timber
sales, and the businesses feeding it, will probably
not recover for some time, if ever.



It is no wonder Wardo's is closing. We also have too
many banking facilities, too many supermarkets, and too
many gas stations, to be sustained by a decreasing
population. This is not the end of businesses closing
in Iron County.

Unless something happens, like a significant investment
in manufacturing, we will become almost exclusively
bedroom communities.



West Iron District Library

Several years ago I purchased a book called "Sources of
Our Liberties" for circulation in the community. I begins
with the Magna Carta of 1215 AD and traces, through
important documents, the sources of our liberties through
the ages in between.

I asked the librarian at the West Iron District Library
if they would be interested in the book for their
reference section, and the answer was yes. So I donated
it to them.

http://www.amazon.com/Sources-Our-Liberties-Richard-Perry/dp/0899417523/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270596366&sr=1-1

Last week I went looking for it. In a discussion among
friends a question came up about how the important
elements of the US Constitution could be taught here in
Iron County. To my dismay the book is not in the library's
collection. They "weeded" it. I saw plenty of space in
their minuscule "reference section" but someone felt
there's no need in people in the county having access
to basic information about the struggles that were
undertaken by American ancestors to provide for the
liberties we have. Instead, a book titled "Dummies Guide
to Civil Liberties" is in their collection.

When the library has lowered expectations of the people
in the community, that's what we'll have. I am done with
any sort of support for the West Iron District Library
and intend to establish some form of privately endowed
lending library that the community can permanently rely
on for non trivial texts. After all, one of the world's
finest library systems, the New York Public Library, is
privately endowed, without a single penny of public
funds going to its support and expansion.

I'd love to hear from like minded individuals.



Apathetic Voters

Al and Gail found this web page that describes the
consequences to one community of apathetic voters. I've
read it and recommend that all voters from Iron County
read it.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Conrad/bernie102.htm


The Drunk Judge Rumor

Over the past two or so years I've wasted a lot of time
chasing down the truth of statements made to me by
various individuals about Judge Schwedler's alleged
drinking and DUI's. I've gone to every surrounding
county and inquired at the jails and at their court
systems, finding nothing about the rumors.

It is my opinion that Judge Schwedler does not belong
on the bench, and I have filed as story in this blog
about it. I have it on good authority that others have
also filed, or will soon be filing, Judicial Tenure
Commission complaints. There is, in my opinion, plenty
of strong reason already available to remove the man
from the bench.

Today I give up chasing the alcoholism rumors, each
of which dissolved into nothingness as I pursued them.
If anyone has reliable, provable, evidence along the
lines of the highly popular rumors that have been
prevalent in Iron County regarding our Judge, please
present it. I will no longer listen to or care about
the rumors. I will no longer expend my time or energy
chasing them. We have no need of such rumors especially
when there is such flagrant misconduct on the bench
that we should be able to get him removed by other
means.


Water Leaks

Recently Iron River Township discovered a leak under
US2 in the 2 inch pipe feeding three homes on my side
of the highway.

Once dug up, they discovered that three taps, each
3/4 inch, had been made in the 4 inch main, feeding
copper lines that rejoined in galvanized pipe, then
a cutoff, and finally a 2 inch galvanized pipe
crossing under the highway.




The decision was made to slide an inch and a quarter
plastic line through the 2 inch in order to feed
these three homes. The copper lines were cut and
spliced, feeding into a new galvanized header with
3 valves in the 3/4 copper lines.

Yes, this system emplaces again the same future
disaster of creating an underground dissimilar metals
battery. The electrical differential always eats away
the galvanized pipe. But the decisions made by the
township are once again the same short sighted ones
made 50 years ago, that everyone involved
will probably be dead by the time the problem
surfaces again.









Permanent solutions could have been had with only
a slight increase in cost. The biggest part of the
costs to make the repairs were in labor, and the same
will be true the next time around. What hasn't
changed in 50 years is the corporate culture that
keeps giving us repetitive failures. There are a
lot of 2 inch galvanized highway crossings in
this township. One has to guess they're all done
the same way. The current administration is dooming
future ones the same way past administrations doomed
this one.

And so it goes....

Bill Vajk

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