Editorial: Delays in city projects nothing new

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’m always reminded of that phrase when we delve into the archives to prepare our annual Pioneer Edition of The Donley County Leader and discover that our problems today are nothing new.

With the downtown revitalization effort under full steam, it was natural to look back at the last time Clarendon undertook a major renovation of the central business district, which was way back in 1920.

Today, a state grant is helping the city replace sidewalks and install new ornamental light posts in the 100 block of South Kearney Street. The project will be great when it’s finished, but it will involve some inconvenience. And of course, there have been and will be some nay-sayers, griping, and project delays. Our current project was slow out of the gate from the bid process and is weeks behind schedule, but, as it turns out, that’s nothing new. In fact, one might say we’re following tradition.

In 1920, the world was still reeling from the end of World War I and the pandemic of Spanish Flu. There were supply chain issues, labor shortages, and other problems that caused the installation to go less than smoothly. The city had already cut down the historic trees lining Kearney Street to make way for the brick paving. The edge of the paving had to be pulled up to lay the electric cable for the new streetlights, which was popularly called a White Way system in those days.

As materials slowly came in, there was even one news article that reported a local body shop had to shorten the cast iron lamp posts and reweld them. No other explanation was given, but I’m sure some city official and the project supervisor were pulling their hair out.

True to form, some citizens started laying it on the city officials pretty hard, and in November, The Clarendon News reported that, having had enough of the complaints, the mayor, most of the city commission, and the city secretary all resigned, leaving one lone city commissioner to run the city and see the project through to its completion in February of 1921.

When it was done, the City Beautiful – as we called Clarendon in those days – had one of the best White Way systems in the territory with 22 brilliant 250-Watt lamps lighting downtown. The system served our city for a long time, lighting the way for pedestrians and motorists alike before eventually being replaced by modern streetlights.

Clarendon’s new system will take longer than it did in 1920, but it’s more extensive and more complicated thanks to government regulations. People cared little about how high steps or curbs were 100 years ago. Today’s sidewalks, installed with state funds, must meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a challenge when every threshold is at a different elevation and slopes can’t exceed more than a quarter inch per foot. Our new sidewalks, will have shorter steps to make it easier for people of all ages to ascend and descend, ramping in the center of each block for better access for those with disabilities, and better lighting to provide more security while enhancing the overall appearance of downtown.

The work in the 100 block will be followed, hopefully, with successive grants to perform matching projects in the 200 and 300 blocks of Kearney, and ultimately make our main street the best it’s ever been.

Also 100 years ago, the city got a new telephone switchboard to greatly expand the communications available in Clarendon. It apparently took some cajoling by city leaders to get the phone company off high center to get that project done. Interestingly, the phone company today is installing fiber internet infrastructure all over town to improve our communications for the modern era… but only after they got some prodding months ago from city officials. History repeating itself.

We hope you enjoy our Pioneer Edition, and we wish you all a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Meanwhile…

This weekend our nation takes time to celebrate the signing of our Declaration of Independence and the God-given freedoms we took ownership of in 1776. It was our Founders’ view that we are all Created Equal and that we are all entitled to certain inalienable rights, chief among them Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Once the United States was founded, however, the enjoyment of those rights was not immediately extended to everyone. It would be years before blacks and women would enjoy the full rights of citizenship.

Today, we like to think we are more enlightened. But are we? Take a look at the bevy of laws passed in the last year aimed at one segment of society or the current popularity of marginalizing or demonizing people just for the sin of being different.

Freedom is a great thing to celebrate. But it means nothing if it does not apply to everyone. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness is for everyone. As Emma Lazarus said: “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”