"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170c)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170c)

It was late morning when Liz finally showed up. Thankfully, Trish spotted her before she made her way to the work area. I intercepted her and guided her to my desk making ’small talk’ as we did. Once seated, I wasted no time in telling her that any further absences would result in her not being paid for those days. I’m not sure if she said anything immediately but I am sure the look on her face was of surprise. I think her first words were along the lines of “But, I’m an officer…”. I didn’t take the ‘bait’ and reminded her that as the auditor she should know that sick leave policy was the same for everybody. That set her 'off ' and she got up off the chair and headed through the platform gate. I had the presence of mind to call Lena, Bert’s (the president) secretary. I told her it was of the utmost importance that I speak to him right away. I’m sure the tone of my voice imparted urgency as the next thing I heard was his voice. I quickly went over the scenario, as it had played out, and got him to say he’d take care of it. Regardless of what he said to her I knew things between Liz and I would be ‘frosty’ for a while. Her dour personality was well known throughout the bank and, in fact, when Laura had been hired to work with her she’d been warned about it by both Hobie and me. However, they had gotten along well right from the start. With the current situation I had a brief thought that Liz might be a little vindictive and try to put me in a bad light in Laura’s eyes. All I could do was hope that it didn’t happen. I waited to see what Liz would do when she returned to the first floor… but I never saw her return. In fact, no one did and that included Laura and Sandy. When I saw Bert headed out for lunch I got to him before he disappeared out the door. I didn’t have to say a word as he quite calmly said she’d be on a leave of absence for the rest of the month. I didn’t really want to but asked if it was without pay. He just smiled and told me that she was to be paid for the whole month. I didn’t say anything and even though I knew it was wrong stood there shaking my head in a negative way as he walked out the door.

In all the ‘hubbub’ of the morning I’d managed to miss a call from the Town Supervisor. I’d gotten to know Alex from Chamber of Commerce meetings. He was the son of a former bank Trustee and had been an attorney in his father’s law firm. The township had been mired in a number of legal battles and Alex had been assigned a couple of the cases. Long story short… he became intrigued with politics and, on a whim, decided to run for the Supervisor’s position. From right after WWII until the previous year the town had been Republican controlled and had only seen two Supervisors in all that time. Running on a platform of nothing more than the words to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” he won handily. I guess you could’ve called him charismatic because he could ‘hold’ an audience… and he did to the point of winning. I’d not seen him, one on one, since he won so was curious as to why he’d want to talk with me. I was waiting for him to pick up the phone when the noon siren went off. I identified myself and then heard him say “Meet me at the ‘Rendezvous' in ten minutes.” The ‘Rendezvous’ was the restaurant run by the man who drove my first race car… Cliff (not to be confused with Cliffy) at the East end of town and not far from Town Hall. I have to admit I was intrigued by his call even though I already had too many things ‘on my platter’.

I got there before Alex and had a minute to chat with Cliff. The last time I’d seen him I told him about my involvement with Cliffy and being a part owner of a race car… again. He’d told me I was crazy but had also told me to contact him about possible sponsorship. I’d forgotten about it until Alex mentioned the restaurant so even though he had an agenda, I did too. I didn’t have time to do more than mention his off-hand offer before Alex appeared with two other men. I told Cliff I’d get back to him before leaving. Alex, although now only in his third month in office, had definitely been stirring things up around town. The previous administration had been rightfully tagged as the “Do nothing group”. By the time he assumed the title, he’d come up with a list of about thirty projects that he wanted to tackle… and one of them concerned me.

When my father sold the family homestead it was to a developer who had also bought the house next door. He was going to tear the houses down and build retail stores. However, his timing was dead wrong because it was the exact same time that the precursor to today’s “Big Box” stores had moved into the township and were developing shopping malls on the “by pass”, a road that was built to help alleviate the traffic on Main Street. As it turned out, it was a mistake that was the beginning of the end for the downtown area. The developers couldn’t get funding without signed leases for the space and had walked away from the project. The town wasn’t getting any tax money for them so took them over. But, they had to come up with a plan on what to do with them. That was where I came in.

Living in a rural area is culturally invigorating. At that lunch I found out Alex was something like a second cousin, twice removed (I’m really not sure and neither was he). Since the house had been in the family since it was built (around 1840) he didn’t think it was right to just demolish it. So, he created a small committee of people who were or had been related to the families that had lived in them to come up with ideas on what could be done with them to benefit the town. I was thrilled and thought my father would be too. The other two men were related to the family that had lived next door. I found out that during WWII, when I lived with my grandparents, one of the men had spent part of a Summer in that house and that there was a chance that we’d played together. By the time Alex had to get back to work we had a very rough idea of what he wanted from us. He waited until he was leaving to tell us that he had a verbal commitment for funding the basic refurbishment part of the project. That gave the three of us a real jolt of encouragement.

I had to go into the kitchen to catch up with Cliff. I was on the ‘high’ of the ‘saving the houses’ project with Alex and not really into the race car mode when he walked up to me and asked if $500 would help. I’d like to say that the offer ‘buckled my knees’ but it didn’t. It only took my breath away. I should be able to remember each and every word of our conversation after that but I really can’t. I do remember immediately thinking of what we would do with the money. I don’t know how long it took for me to thank him and to ask what he wanted from us. I expected him to want us to put the name of one of his restaurants on the car and when I suggested it he shook his head. While I was standing there he went to a drawer under one of the counters and pulled out some cards and handed them to me. All he wanted was for us to hand out those cards to people who came around  the car after the races were over. I asked him if that was all and he answered “Yes”.

To be continued…