Sunday, March 29, 2009

LITTLE RIPPLES

After The Muses and I attended that county commissioner's meeting back in February, hoping to fight the approval of yet another dense housing development that would suck this aquifer dry, I felt compelled to write my very first letter-to-the-editor. In it I simply asked why, if we are all as concerned about dwindling water supplies as we claim to be, we haven't enacted any mandatory water restrictions here in Wimberley.

Surprisingly, my letter was published in the very next issue of The Wimberley View. Then, a week or two later, there was an article in the paper announcing that at long last, after months and months of fighting about all the nit-picky details of a restriction plan, the commissioners had voted unanimously to "get this puppy" enacted. Upon reading this, I jokingly said "Ha! You see this, John? I bet it was my letter that finally made them get their rears in gear and do something!" Then we both had a good belly laugh over the absurdity of my statement.

Funny thing is, I have these google alerts set up, that tell me whenever my name, or the name of my blog, gets mentioned somewhere on line, because it's fun to see when something you write gets quoted somewhere else. Well, right after I made that ludicrous declaration, I received an alert telling me that my name was mentioned in the minutes of a recent city council meeting. When I followed the link and read further, I discovered that one of the commissioners got up and read my letter-to-the-editor aloud at their last meeting, right before they took the vote that finally passed their water restriction plan. Well, what do you know? Unbeknownst to me, I must have sent out one of those little ripples we have talked about. Cool!

4 comments:

musingegret said...

That is so very cool! Now will that shoot down the approval of the newest development project? Sure hope so. I want Blue Hole to be around for a few more centuries. Maybe you should run for commissioner next, hmmmmm?

Joanna Jenkins said...

AWESOME! You rock!!!!!! In your spare time could you maybe write a few letters to the Los Angeles Times on the same subject and help us out too :-)

Hill Country Hippie said...

Unfortunately, what we found out at that commissioner's meeting is that until the Texas legislature changes their laws, there is not much the county commissioners can do to prevent overdevelopment. As long as the developers abide by the (inadequate) laws that are in place, the commissioners have to approve them. Sucks, I know. So now the commissioners are having a big fight amongst themselves as to whether we need full chapter 36 something-or-other, to give us more control over regulating wells and such, and I swear, sometimes you just don't know who to believe! As for me running for office? Well, just shoot me first!

Hill Country Hippie said...

P.S. This is probably a good time to warn you that, though I may appear to be a very wordy person here on my blog, that does not transfer into real life - which is why I could never be in politics. In real life, I am usually the quiet one at the table, who just listens to everyone else, and never has much to say for herself. Even if you were to ask my opinion on something I felt passionate about, I would have trouble finding the words to articulate my feelings - unless, of course, you handed me a keyboard or a pen!