Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon and Spam

Every time I take a day off lately, the spammers flood this place. I wonder if somebody's slipping them my schedule.

Anyway, that's all cleaned up now, so those of you in need of British children's shoes, French designer jackets or help with troubled marriages will have to look elsewhere.

At the moment, my day is in flux, but my colleague Bruce Edwards is at the annual REDC meeting and will likely have all the news from that in tomorrow's paper.

I, too, believe in double posts

This was, for some reason, an exact replica of the post below it. I'm not sure how that happened.

If you arrived here from Twitter hoping to read about somebody getting dissed, just go down a post.

Disses and Props

Mayor Louras said Monday he would soon participate in an effort by the state's emergency planning commissions to determine what worked and what did not during the response to the flood.

Louras said he already had one part of the city's response in mind that did not work so well.

"Let's face it -- the city's website is garbage and it really highlighted how worthless it was during the event," he said.

The website cannot be easily edited, he said, making it of little use to the city for updating citizens during a changing situation. Louras said it was an issue not just for the city but for many towns in the region.

On a more positive note, Alderman Christopher Robinson said he wanted to "honestly commend" Louras for the way he kept the board and the public informed during the flood.

"You acted as a tremendous leader in the city," Robinson said. "I can't imagine anyone more fit to be leading us at that time."

Louras responded that the real accolades should be directed at the various city employees who were toiling in the field during the storms immediate aftermath.

Overheard at City Hall

"There's no question that isn't stupid when it comes to the budget."

I'm 99 percent sure that came out the opposite of how it was intended, but I can't be certain. If so, I acually think it's better like this.

Parking Outtakes Part 2: Technical Know-how

When Downtown Rutland Partnership executive director Michael Coppinger proposed a one-month test run of free two-hour parking downtown, he said the police department already has the technology to make it happen.

He said the hand-held ticketing doohickeys* have a "tire-chalking"-type feature in which the officer can enter license plate numbers as he goes about his rounds. On subsequent passes, Coppinger said, the device remembers how long a particular car had been in a particular spot. Thus, he said, two-hour parking could be enforced without any technological upheaval.

 

*Would you believe that I felt the need to look up "doohickey?" I mean, yeah, this is a blog and the spirit of the Internet says I'm not supposed to edit anything, but I had an attack of uncertainty and how embarrassing would it be to misspell a word like "doohickey?"

It is not, for the record, in the dictionary.

Parking Outtakes Part 1: Hawley's Two Cents

There were a few interesting moments at the second downtown parking meeting that, for one reason or another, did not make the story in today's paper. I plan on posting a few of them to the blog today and tomorrow, and any I have left after that, I'll wedge into the column.

Downtown Rutland Partnership President Bonnie Hawley made a couple decent points, so let's start with her.

One of Alderman Ed Larson's proposals called for using the Special Benefits District tax money that funds the DRP to subsidize the parking deck. Such a move could effectively defund the partnership, prompting Hawley to point out that when a previous downtown organization was disbanded and volunteers took over downtown development efforts, nothing got done. A staff and a steady revenue stream, she said, have been the key to downtown accomplishments in recent years.

Larson said he did not want to do away with the DRP, but that the city needed to look at ways to be more creative in helping the downtown.

Hawley also described the deck as hard to use. She described arranging for a meeting of the Vermont Retail Association this week at Table 24. First she had to get members directions to the garage, then she had to make sure they went to the right gate -- only one takes cash -- then she had to make sure they had the right cash, then she had to direct them from the garage to Table 24.

She said she came close to just telling them to park at Key Bank.

"The biggest problem is not a fare," she said. "It isn't. People cannot figure out that garage."

Still, Hawley said the garage is "a gigantic asset," and that steps can be taken to make it more user-friendly.

"It is time we figure out how to make this work," she said. "It can't just be the partnership because we don't have the revenue. It needs to be a city-wide effort. I get real discouraged sometimes because it was built in 1998 and we still haven't figured this out."

 

Hint, Hint

The Alliance for Biking and Walking is taking nominations for its 2012 Advocacy Awards.

Have we had any people or organizations hereabouts who have been heavily involved in projects promoting biking and walking? Hmm let me think...

Surely you folks can come up with SOMEBODY hereabouts worth nominating.

Happy All Saints Day

I posted yesterday. Really, I did. The Halloween goblins must have eaten it. That's my story, anyway.

So, right now I'm waiting to link up with the mayor and find out what the budget is going to be next year. You, loyal reader, will have to wait a little bit longer because I've promised not to put anything up here until the aldermen have had a chance to go home and read their emails.

(Their emails will have the budget proposal in them, for those of you who had too much fun last night and are in no condition today for advanced mental functions like inference.)

Tonight is also part two in the trilogy of Community and Economic Development Committee meetings on downtown parking. If Sharon Davis has studied her Hollywood screenwriting, she will end the meeting on a cliffhanger to be resolved in the third, as-yet unscheduled meeting.