A pond-scum green water tower
I recently was pleased to learn that some Peabody Gazette-Bulletin readers complained to city employees about something they read in the newspaper. I have made comments in the past couple of weeks about you folks not paying attention to important community issues to which I try to alert you, but I must have been wrong. You picked up on this little tidbit with startling alacrity.
About two months ago Peabody public works director Darren Pickens presented the city council with a page of paint samples from which they were supposed to select the new color for the water tower. There was much hemming and hawing and some discussion about "white" and how nice a color it is. They talked about not messing up a good thing, followed by more hemming and hawing, and they finally selected "Toggle Teal." Huh?
Yup, they did pick it. Turns out that Toggle Teal is sort of an algae green
Mr. Pickens was in attendance at a subsequent meeting to encourage the council to review its Toggle Teal selection. He said he was already tired of answering questions about the color and defending the council's choice. (See? This wasn't his fault. Next time take it right to the council members.) Well, the fellas hemmed and hawed once more and yammered around again and finally settled on a pale blue with Peabody-blue letters. That's always a safe bet around here
But they are getting there. They have approved and published a reasonable budget and they've selected colors for a water tower
This bunch is pretty new and lacks experience. But I am not horrified by what they have done. Actually, I am almost proud of them.
They really did give the budget a wringing out. They looked at all those things that you, the public, complain about and tell them they "should" fix (without telling them how). They picked it apart and put it back together again. They suggested cuts and then they took them back
However, just like the Toggle Teal selection, when the public said, "oh, no you don't!" they were willing to look again and try for a better choice. They worked hard and gave it good shot. Am I happy with everything they picked? Well, shoot, no
But then, you know what? I didn't really think the Toggle Teal selection was all that bad. No, really
— SUSAN MARSHALL