The Blond and I lived in a great many communities, especially where I was the city manager.
My first community of that nature was Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It was also known as E-Town and was the home of Elizabethtown College and Klein Chocolate. The latter provided a wonderful chocolate smell as you walked the streets. Klein and Hershey started out as friends, but soon became competitive. There was a direct route from E-Town to Hershey. When we were there, you could take a tour of the Hershey factory and receive a few samples. They also had a miniature railroad that only small children could ride on. We had our oldest son who fit the bill and loved to ride the train. Alas, Hershey is not that way anymore, and even Klein Chocolate has been bought out by Mars.
I soon found that I was directly involved in every aspect of the government, including clerk, finance director, budget director, administrator, etc. Luckily, I did have a public works director and a sewer plant operator. E-Town, under state law, was a borough, which meant that the police department reported to the mayor. The mayor was a medical doctor and he didn’t have time to watch the police department, so I had that too. I did have a secretary who was competent and helpful. The city hall needed bricking, and I found a less expensive way to do it. I had a bridge built for $10,000, which was very cheap even then. The council was so impressed that after six months, they gave me a $250 raise. Well, the good citizens got so riled up over this large increase that when the next year’s budget was approved, I received no increase.
By the end of that year, we had another child and had to move on even though it was a great community, as we could not afford to stay. The next community that we liked was Pequannock Township, New Jersey. One thing about townships in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is that they mostly have more than one post office. Pequannock had two — Pequannock and Pompton Plains. The Pequannock Township Hall was in Pompton Plains! It was on a fairly large piece of land. We had a wonderful township council, but they had one flaw. That came each winter when they would direct us to grade out a large section and fill it with water so people could ice skate. Every year the staff and I would tell them it wouldn’t work because it never got cold enough. We were always right, but we still had to build the ice rink every year. The community was full of delightful people, there was a great church we liked, and we used to have a group of men who played softball once a week.
That all made up for the usual problems one has in government. One of which was a contractor who had a sand mine in the middle of town. Yep, sand! The problem was that when he took out the sand, it was replaced by water. I was afraid that Pequannock would become one big lake. He threatened me with various and sundry responses if I didn’t let him do what he wanted. This was many years ago, and Pequannock Township is still one nice community and not a big lake!
As I mentioned, this was many years ago — before the turn of the century, even. However, one lady who lived there then is now a neighbor in our continuing care community. It is truly a small world.
Another community that I will mention briefly is Maplewood, Minnesota. This was also before the turn of the century. Minnesota was different then. Very friendly folks were all around you! However, at this point, I am just going to mention that Maplewood is where I started writing what has evolved into my weekly “Musings.” There was a local paper, and I talked the city managers in White Bear Lake and North St. Paul into each of us writing informative columns for the residents of our communities. We would take turns doing it once a week. They decided rather quickly that they would rather not. As a result, I wrote one every week and carried it over to other communities I managed. The mayor of North St. Paul was a really funny guy. He and I used to exchange comments. I would poke him, and he would poke right back. There was one woman who complained that I should not pick on the good mayor. He didn’t mind. In fact, some years after I left, the paper repeated the columns. It made managing fun!
Barry Evans is a columnist for Villages-News.com.