To The Editor:
Our covered bridge is another case of dysfunctional government and society. Is there something going on at this location? It’s like a magnet or black hole for (fill in the blank) _______ decisions. If we had kids climbing onto the roof of the new town office, the library or the fire department, how would we deal with that? Would we hire landscapers to be there year round and monitor their activities? Do we have to put razor wire up? We close up all the roads so normal business can’t function during a marathon, but we can’t keep people from literally climbing the walls of town property?
Kids, me included, have jumped off the bridge for years; we knew we weren’t supposed to. I did it once; I didn’t get my picture on the front cover of the newspaper or posted on Facebook. If my parents found out what I did, I would have been in big trouble. My stepfather would have been very quick to point out, roofs are not designed for walking on; it ruins the roof.
Contractors and insurance companies would probably point out that working (climbing) on roofs is rather risky work. Maybe we should enlist our business permitting process for access onto the roof; it’s permitted but under conditional use. That way we can at least drag out the process for six months without a hitch, two years easily per application. Maybe we should charge $500 per application to jump. Do you have workers’ comp to work on the roof? Do you have liability insurance to do roofing work?
Seriously, you need to be told, “Don’t climb onto a roof of property you don’t own”? And worse, we can’t keep people from climbing onto our roof because of the laws? And parents think it’s OK and fight for the ability of kids to climb onto the roof and jump? And we survey the kids to see if this is something we should continue doing? Seriously, how (fill in the blank) ______ can we get? There is an eddy of (fill in the blank) _______ decisions going on; it’s in Montpelier and Washington too, but you can see it manifesting itself here; Waitsfield is no different. It’s a wonder we can get anything done.
Neil Johnson
Waitsfield
