Chapter 09

First Semester

There’s very little for the maintenance staff to do in the way of real maintenance beyond looking after the yards because the sorority is as if it’s brand new due to all of the renovations. Thus it’s good Faith and Hope have classes three mornings a week. Lee also arranges for them to spend Mondays and Fridays at the community as visiting workers. Faith works with the community Brothers building the houses so she can get experience with the way houses are built while Hope works with the Brother in charge of preparing the fields for planting. Work records are kept as it all counts towards their university courses as work experience. The most work they have at the sorority is in the greenhouse vegetable garden. Of an evening Lee helps the girls with their studies.

The residents all express approval of the covered pool and yard area for them to relax in without having to worry about the weather. By the end of the first week of classes all of the residents are into a routine as they settle in to the university and sorority schedules.

The staff appreciate the fresh vegetables and spices from the vegetable garden as it means less to be bought and carried in. They also like being able to add to the range of food growing in the garden to include their favorites, even when they’re out of season for this area.

In general, life at the sorority goes well for the whole semester.

The Development

The staff and residents of the sorority are amused at the number of the locals who visit to speak to Lee during the day. When they arrive he meets them at the front door then leads them through to his office over the entry area where they discuss things in private. The visitors Lee sees the most of are Lacey and Rusty about the development as they clarify a few minor aspects or get approvals for items.

During one of the visits Lee learns he’d missed some of the building construction due to the earth moving vehicles working in front of the group of buildings. This comes to light when Lacey says, “Lee, as you know, we’ve not got the water, sewage, or drainage in yet, but we have finished the ambulance station, Sheriff’s sub-depot, fire station, clinic, and the helipad. The county people want to move people in now, if you’ll approve it. They’ll rent portable toilets to use.”

“As long as they accept the liability of moving into buildings they’ve not yet approved for full-time use I’ve not got a problems with having the emergency services occupying them. I thought it was a volunteer fire service in this county.”

“While the majority of staff are volunteers, there are a few full-timers to run the stations. Some of the volunteers work for themselves and are already picking out where to live in the development, so they asked about living in campers on their lots while their houses get built. That means they’ll be able to work at a station here.”

“OK, Lacey. I’ve no problem with that as long as they aren’t camped out for too long. I expect the County officials to control that. How are you doing with getting commercial operations to commit to build here?”

“The bigger franchise people want to wait to see how many residents we get. However, we’ve got commitments for a dozen locals to move the restaurants they have into larger premises along what we’re calling the University Row. The fuel companies aren’t happy about us not having big gas stations, but I’ve got one to agree to have a wholesale depot and truck station up on the state highway in the north-east corner of the development. That puts it well out of the way while still getting them the passing truck trade. I’ve six people who want to operate the small gas stations and mini-marts you want through the residential areas. I had a bit of an issue getting those approved by the County Planner, but he did agree when I told him you wanted the residents to have somewhere they could get basic items within a reasonable walking distance of their home. I’m still talking to some of the bigger stores about the main mall as they aren’t happy about being the only store there.”

“Good. The people for the mini-marts, they do know it’s to include a good take-away hot food service as well, I hope.”

“Yes. They all like the concept, and they’re talking to each other about having a different focus. I suspect they’ll have a combined purchasing system once they get set up, because four of them are siblings.”

In general the development looks after itself, and is growing fast. So fast all of the broad-acre work is done at the same time as the sewage treatment plant and the water treatment plant are finished. So they’re almost ready to be selling residential lots.

Much as Lee didn’t want it to happen, the county insisted the entire development have connectivity to the grid available to each lot, so work crews put in electric power lines at the same time as they ran fiber optic cable to each lot for Internet access with Internet based phone services.

In late November the first of the new houses are being built on the lots and commercial operations along the street opposite the university are open for business. Lee smiles at that because all of the commercial lots on the street are sold to small local businesses. Due to the franchise stores waiting to see how the development goes they miss out on the premium lots and will be further back into the commercial area than they like.

The troubles by the Kelly clan start a few days after Brian Kelly’s visit to Ralph. However, they move into high gear after the utilities are installed in the development despite all the Kelly clan can do to stop the development from moving forward on schedule.

Power Problems

As everyone predicted, the Kelly family are not happy with the new development happening across the river, especially so when many of the high rent properties they have don’t renew their rental agreements due to being able to buy better facilities across the river on the low interest loans the developer is offering.

With so many of the places to eat out moving across the river most of the residents of Riverside cross the river to eat out, and they also take the opportunity to do some of their shopping in the stores over there as the layout is a lot more convenient than in Riverside. This results in a lot of the trade moving across the river, especially the trade in the retail stores owned by the Kelly family members. Of course, that makes them angrier.

After the attempts by the Kelly clan to interfere in the development via the county across the river don’t get them the results the Kelly clan want they turn to using the city resources they control. They soon find they have little effect and no one cares about it.

The most successful attack on the new town the Kelly’s come up with is due to a traffic survey held to review traffic flow levels. There are two bridges across the river between the two urban areas: one is on the state highway at the north end of the university with the uni staff housing on the other side of the highway, and the second is on a county road that’s the southern boundary of the university area. The second bridge was put in by the state to provide access to the Riverside facilities for the uni staff and students without them having to use the state highway.

The first bridge is a state facility, as is the highway it sits on, and the state provides funds for the upkeep of both. However, while the second bridge is a state facility the roads on either end are county roads and not under the control of the state. This bridge has had a lot of traffic since it was opened, but the traffic load has quadrupled with the extra traffic of the people in the new development. The extra usage has caused excessive wear on that road and those that feed it, so it now needs a lot more work than it originally did. It’s this work need that the Kellys focus on as a way to cause trouble for the development and those in it.

Bridge Games

The Riverside City sends a Letter of Demand to the other county for funds to assist with the extra road work caused by their residents in traveling through Riverside streets. However, the amount they ask for is more than Riverside budgeted for roadworks for the last two years, so it’s clearly an excessive amount they’re asking for. The reply they get is polite and long, but it summarizes as: The traffic is due to Riverside residents crossing the bridge or by our residents going to businesses in your city, so it’s all your responsibility due to you getting the taxes from the extra business and the property taxes. The reply is not well received.

The next attack by the Kelly clan is to have road blocks put up just past the Riverside end of the bridge to stop traffic from entering town. The way the bridge is constructed they can’t block pedestrian traffic, so they don’t try. The sign they put up says it’s to stop excess traffic until they get funding support to fix and upgrade the roads.

Lacey writes to a number of state offices about the situation, and the replies make it clear the state authorities are not going to get involved in what they see as a local issue that doesn’t involve state assets since the problem is off the bridge and not on the bridge.

Following talks between Lee, Rusty, Lacey, and the relevant county officials Lacey, with county backing, approaches the state about either a private company or the county for their side taking over ownership and responsibility for the bridge. In late December the state replies with a letter which transfers ownership, control of, and responsibility for the bridge to the county on the east side of the river. The plans show the land at the west side of the bridge is part of the bridge for ten feet around the end of the bridge and they now have control and responsibility for it as well. The state also sends a copy to the Riverside City Council.

The Riverside City responds by turning the road onto the bridge into a dead end just past the driveway into the last house in the street. They tear up the last five feet of the road under their control and put down turf to make it a grassed area. Thus they effectively put an end to any vehicular traffic exiting the bridge on their side of the river.

More discussions between Lee, Rusty, Lacey and the county officials take place on how to deal with the situation. After a while Lee says, “It’s clear the bridge can still be used by pedestrians and there’s not a thing they can do about that. No one is allowed to build in the twenty feet close to the river, so why not do some work on that area to make it a nice riverside walk with some river recreational activities and build some removable structures on the bridge to make a fun mall.”

Lacey says, “I’m not sure I know what you mean, Lee.”

“On the coast they’ve big piers they made into fun parks. We can do a cut down version on the bridge. The buildings need to be such they don’t affect the bridge structure if we later remove them to make it a bridge again. We put a bunch of stalls or shops down the center of the bridge and make the rest of it a pedestrian mall. We’ll have to leave gaps between the buildings in a few places to let people move back and forth from one side to the other. We can also allow fishing from the bridge on the half near the Riverside bank. That’s so the fishermen don’t interfere with water activities near our bank.”