Editor’s Note: The items in this column were first published in the November 30, 2011 and April 6, 2011 editions of the PROGRESS.
By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… In November, 1998, the people of Clark County voted to pass a bond issue that cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $20 a year. This bond has provided $4.9 billion in capital improvement funds for the Clark County School District.
By definition, a capital improvement is the addition of a permanent structural improvement or the restoration of some aspect of a property that will enhance the property’s overall value or increases its useful life. The district indicated it would use the money to build 50 elementary schools, 22 middle schools, and 16 high schools. About $115 million would be used to purchase land, and $31 million would be budgeted for two new regional bus yards. Existing schools would receive $854 million for renovations during the life of the tax measure. This bond issue was for capital improvements.
Nineteen years have passed and the bond issue has reached its end. In February 2011, the Board voted 7-0 to oppose the use of such money to balance the State budget or “for any other purpose” not approved by voters in the original 1998 vote for the multi-billion dollar bond.
I do wonder how some of the purchases qualify as “a purpose” approved by the 1998 voters. According to the 558-page budget document, over $33 million dollars in capital improvement money has been spent on non-capital improvement items such as computers, printers, computer programs, musical instruments, books, and office supplies. Ten thousand dollars worth of athletic washing machines were purchased at one high school. An elementary school had a $4,600 trophy case built. I believe our community was told to finance its own trophy cases. A Facilities Financial Management P.O. showed over $12,000 worth of utility vehicles being purchased.
I am not questioning the need for these items. However, I do question whether they are capital improvements. The 2015 State Legislature has circumvented the people by rolling over the 1998 bond without a vote of the people.
No one asked me but… Smokey is a cat who lives in London. The amazing thing about Smokey is not that he purrs, but that his purr registers at 73 decibels. That is as noisy as busy traffic, a hair dryer, or a vacuum sweeper.
What could be more irritating than a cat that can shatter glass with its purr? Does a cat really have to have another ability to irritate? Aren’t cat’s irritating enough?
The one redeeming factor of these feline nuisances is that they are generally quiet. We have had a number of cats in our household. They seem to come and go with regularity. Where a dog leaves only when he or she dies, cats seem to come and go as they please.
We had a cat that lived in our garage. We have had a cat that gave birth in our bedroom closet. We had a cat that ran away and was gone for six months only to be found across town in another person’s garage. The cat had been injured and when the people called to tell me my cat was at their house and needed a vet, I denied I had a cat. I truly forgot that we had a cat; unfortunately, we had placed a collar on this cat with our phone number on it. That was the last time we collared a cat.
We pick the cat up, paid an extensive vet bill only to have the cat killed by a German Shepherd a week or so later. I have no doubt the cat irritated the dog to a point that it had no choice but to take matters into his own jaws and end the irritation.
We have had dogs, cats, parakeets, cockatiels, hermit crabs, a rabbit, a guinea pig, an owl, and kids. I have a fond affection for my dogs and kids. I have only toleration for the cats.
I have no idea why we named the cats, but we always did. The cats never seemed to recognize the fact they had a name. They might as well have been chickens, but they laid no eggs and could not be eaten so I am at a loss as to what earthly good they were.
The only cat I ever missed, when he was gone, was a renegade I named Big George. Big George was not my cat. I don’t believe he belonged to anyone. I guess that can be said for all cats but Big George was even more independent that most.
When Big George suddenly showed up at my house, we had another cat named Shredder. That will give you some idea what that cat was like. At this time, Shredder lived in the garage, but when Big George would visit, Shedder would wisely disappear until Big George left. Big George would come to my back door and cry until I would come and scratch his head.
Now Big George was not a nice cat, if there is such a thing. He was a tomcat in every sense of the word. He was huge. Big George was a polydactyl cat, he had extra toes on his front feet.
I thought it would impress you to know I know what a polydactyl cat is. Actually, I looked it up on the internet.
His ears were notched and his faced scared from numerous battles with other cats. He sprayed his territory and was just generally unpleasant to most in the neighborhood.
However, for some reason he took a fancy to me. This may speak more to my character than the character of the cat. I actually put food out for him, but he didn’t come by for the food; he came by for the companionship.
Big George lasted in the neighborhood a little less than a year. I like to think he went out of this world engaged in a battle with a coyote. I am not sure a coyote could have handled Big George.
More likely than not one of my neighbors, rightly so, got tired of Big George spraying, yowling in the night, or beating up on their domesticated felines and did away with this old renegade.
All of these thoughts came to me as I read this article about Smokey who had found another way to irritate, which seems to be the major goal of all the cats in the world.
Thought of the week… “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”
-Garrison Keillor
