Welcome to Princeton Texas, population north of 18,000 and rapidly climbing. To the east, Farmersville – one of the many locations here in this little corner of the DFW Metromess claiming to be the hometown of WWII hero Audie Murphy (while downplaying the fact that Charles “Tex” Watson of the Manson “family” was born there). To the west, McKinney – a place with lots of historic charm and a jail which briefly hosted Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Princeton is a nice place. My neighbors (at least) are friendly enough, taxes are not too overbearing, and there are more than enough places to purchase a decent taco.
With at least 23 places to purchase a taco within city limits, I have quipped that the mini tacos the better half and I purchase from Costco are technically illegal.
We do have a problem, here, with the city. For some reason, there seem to be threads of dysfunctionality running through city hall. For instance, yesterday (December 13th), a bit of rough weather came close to us. A tornado warning was issued at 9:15am, lasting until 9:45am. The storm passed to the north of us. We got bunches of rain and wind, and by the time the warning expired, we were seeing hints of blue sky.
At 9:53am, the tornado warning siren went off.
An image of Wile E. Coyote using an umbrella to fend off a falling boulder (or stray anvil) came to mind.
The city told us later that morning that the power went out at city hall (the brand-new city hall) just as they were about to sound the sirens when the warning was first issued. They decided to test the siren after they got power back. Cue the umbrellas.
The power didn’t even flicker here at the homestead.
One would think that city hall would have some sort of battery backup, especially since city hall doubles as the police station. It’s a small deal when you think about it, but at the same time, it’s an important deal. I mean, pre-planning prevents poor performance. Right?
That lesson should have been learned in February 2021 during the big freeze… when the city’s water system failed for lack of a power source.
Speaking of water systems, the bill for city utilities has a notice on the water bills they send out that the consumer is responsible for paying their water bill even if they don’t receive a bill. At the same time, they don’t make allowances for the fact that sometimes there’s a glitch in the system which prevents a water bill from coming to the consumer. I missed getting a bill from the city earlier this year. I went to city hall and was told that my payment was late, and I had to pay a penalty. I pointed out that I never got the bill. The penalty was waived. As a result, I went to electronic billing. Except for the fact that the bill is followed by a reminder the next day that a bill has been sent and I need to bring my money to city hall RIGHT NOW!
Please. Give it a rest!
Now, I have my suspicions as to why the city is dysfunctional – suspicions having to do with party affiliation and/or church affiliation. But we don’t want to know, now, do we? There could be just a bit of conflict of interest (the mayor is also a Realtor), but again, we have to be careful about where we go, right?
I mean, overall, my experience here in the past six years has been pretty good overall. Sure, there are glitches which pop up here and there, but the same glitches can happen anywhere.
Be Seeing You!
bdharrellauthor 