Editorial: Let’s set a new tone for our city

For better or worse, the City of Clarendon was the talk of the town again last week. But this time it was not so much for the Board of Aldermen. This time it was breakdowns in our public waterworks.

A contractor damaged a waterline last Tuesday evening and, without going into all the gory details, the repair was fixed in a prompt and professional matter. The loss of pressure, however, meant that City Administrator Lambert Little had to follow proper procedure and issue a Boil Water Notice, something that was a bit of an inconvenience for folks until Thursday afternoon… but not as much of an inconvenience as having no water at all would have been.

There was a bit of hoopla over the boiling of the water, but for the most part people just went along and made the best of it.

Then over the weekend there were a couple of other water line breaks that affected people’s service and were repaired by our dedicated city workers. Those seemed to elicit more chatter from armchair experts who took to social media to criticize not just the speed of the repairs but also city government in general and the city’s sale of groundwater to Greenbelt Water Authority in particular. All of this over a couple of leaks that were repaired by guys working in cold, wet holes in the ground.

Perhaps it’s time we all learned something from those guys.

Despite adverse conditions, our public works department jumped in – literally – and did what had to be done to get things fixed. They did it because it is their jobs, and it’s what they do. Public Works Director John Molder’s crew seems to be a hardworking bunch of guys, and they clearly demonstrated that he has trained the well enough, they can get the job done without him looking over their shoulders. (Molder was on medical leave when all this static was going on.)

Molder’s men – like other city employees from the top down – don’t need microscopic oversight from the board of aldermen and they certainly don’t need second guessing from folks on Facebook who don’t have a clue what challenges they are facing in the field. They need support – from the board and from the citizens.

As we close out this year, it is a good time to put aside the bitterness that seems to permeate our community and focus on what we can do to support the men in the trenches who make this city work and what steps can be taken to move Clarendon forward.

The Board of Aldermen has an excellent opportunity to set that tone Thursday night, December 13, when they will meet in a re-scheduled regular meeting. They have a vacancy to fill with the resignation of Alderman Terry Noble, and that will be as good a time as any to begin unifying our community, which they can do with careful consideration of who they choose to appoint.

From there it is a matter of learning to all work together, to respect each other, and move forward… together. The members of our Board of Aldermen have it within themselves to do what is in the best interests of the city and to put aside any hard feelings or personal agendas.

And as citizens we must all do that as well. There are problems to be fixed if Clarendon is to be prosperous. Aging waterlines need to be replaced, other infrastructure issues must be addressed, and hardworking employees deserve respect, fair treatment, and wages commensurate with the value of their positions to this city.

All of that costs money, and we need to be willing to pony up some of it when it’s time to set the budget next fall. We have to invest in this city to make it prosper. But first we need to invest some faith in each other and learn to get along.