Island Hopes Whitewater Scandal Left No Scar

Adjoining the Roosevelt Campobello International Park and New Brunswick's Herring Cove Provincial Park is the rustic Lupine Lodge, which up until the end of last season offered accommodations and the island's only fine dining.

The estate was originally developed by a family of Roosevelt cousins, who used it as a getaway until the 1970s, when they turned it over to the New Brunswick Department of Tourism and Parks. Due to budget limitations, the Parks Department let the property sit empty and fall into disrepair until the 1980s, when a brash developer from Arkansas did a flyover and saw potential in the place.

Jim and Susan McDougal of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan and "Whitewater" fame bought 3000 acres on Campobello Island in the 80s. They built roads, cut lots and entered into an agreement with the New Brunswick government to develop the old Adams Estate in a full service resort, which they used to entertain friends, clients and potential buyers for their property development.

After the savings and loan crash and the dissolution of Madison Guaranty, a private corporation operated the resort under contract until 2009, when economic conditions and border procedures changed. Over the course of that year, a local non-profit was established to operate the lodge, which took over full management in August of 2009.

Then, without explanation and with only two days notice, the provincial government ended their contract with the Compass Institute in January 2010 and because it's now time for the local tourist economy to spring to life, the island's residents are getting concerned. After all, the lodge has traditionally employed about twenty people and it's estimated they do $60,000 in local purchasing, with the bulk going to the local grocer.

As of the March 26th edition of the Quoddy Times, the provincial government still had not announced any plans for the property and they've told local residents that the "process doesn't require" local input. Also prior to February, New Brunswick had held no discussions with the International Park, though now at least one meeting has occurred.

Unfortunately, beyond getting "official" answers from the various governmental bodies, the status of any negotiations or plans for the summer season are still completely unknown.

Head Scratcher: A Non-Story in Questionable Taste

Phoebe Prince, a student at South Hadley High committed suicide.

Several of her classmates were indicted by a Grand Jury for contributing to her death, which takes the case into national headlines, so WWLP in Springfield (MA) filed a report on whether it sells hotel rooms?

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High School Students Ask President for "Hope"

(BackStory)

What Would You Do for a Bite of a Google Bar?

For at least a couple of weeks, I've filtered the multitude of municipal pleas for Google Fiber out of the feeds which supply content for this blog and the others which are currently under development. There's just been too many because though it may be a slight overstatement, pretty much every town of any size has thrown their hat into the ring.

That's why I missed the humorous approach being used by Duluth, Minnesota. Though because they're being unique and are making no bones out of participating in a "pander war", I thought that I'd remedy my oversight by embedding their satirical proclamation after the jump, along with a follow-up culled from their video archive.

Small Stimulus Check Makes Big Difference

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Semi-Related: Stimulus dollars at work in Billings (MT)

Town Upset with USA Today's Description

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Real Estate Company President Amicably Fired

The Times-Picayune published a study of the disparity between Jefferson Parish (LA) assessment values and the eventual sales price of homes on Sunday and by Tuesday, Arthur Sterbcow, president of Latter & Blum, Inc./Realtors had been fired.

Mr. Sterbcow's crime was that he cooperated with the investigation and had been quoted in the paper as being critical of the Jefferson Parish Assessor. Lawrence E. Chehardy is a second-generation assessor, who is described as the most powerful in Louisiana due to the value of the Parish's homes and its large population.

"Needless to say, the last people on earth we need against us are our assessors", Latter & Blum chairman Bob Merrick wrote in the email announcing the termination.

"I love Latter & Blum, I love the agents, I love the staff. It was just a business decision." Arthur Sterbcow told the Times-Picayune.

How Does Bob Simon "Let Loose"?

Deep in an article about Olympic snowboarder Shaun White and his previously-secret halfpipe located on Silverton Mountain, after looking at the town's hope that the publicity may help their economy and detailing the laid-back way Mr. White made himself at home, Shane Benjamin of the Durango Herald offers the following paragraphs;

On some nights, White and his friends went a little wild.

"When you have somebody who has that kind of ego and that kind of following, it's probably pretty tough to rein it in at times," Custer said. "And when you combine that with alcohol, it can lead to issues."

Even Bob Simon, the reporter from "60 Minutes," and his daughter from New York City let loose while in town, he said.

"It happens a lot," Custer said. "It's not just with people who have some celebrity status. It happens with a lot of people that come to this town because it's the nature of things. They're away from their home, and it's a tourist town, so they cut loose. They had a good time. And that's what we do up here; we have a good time."

Which naturally leads one to ask; Did the legendary war correspondent and his producer-daughter do anything notable to "cut loose", or did they simply make an impression with their presence?

Related: There's also some terrific video of the halfpipe in use.

Sell the Horse, We're Moving to Town

We've all seen the ads especially on cable, where a state might run a national or regional in hopes of attracting businesses or a tourist destination touts the wonders of their area, but apparently there's been a move underfoot for South Dakota communities to run ads on their local, statewide broadcast network.

The latest entry in this effort is the City of Brandon, which according to their ads, BusinessWeek rated the 3rd "Most Affordable" suburb.

I'm not sure if the plan is to pull people from the larger towns in the area or if they're looking to draw folks from the boonies, who long for paved streets, but because neither of the videos are embeddable or on YouTube, it's really just a local campaign.

Finger-Licking Fun

The Friends of Col. Sanders and Corbin (KY) Tourism are hoping to erect a 10-foot bronze likeness of the restaurateur, who launched an empire by serving fried chicken from the living quarters of a service station, he owned in town.

Yum Brands, the current holder of the KFC rights and patents have given their okay, though there's no word yet, as to whether they'll pull a "TV Land" and contribute to or fully fund the community's cause.

Granted, the heroic-sized statue would be quite a bit smaller than the one pictured, but the tourist trap destination they hope to develop around the statue sounds quite a bit like the area around the extra-large Superman in Metropolis, Illinois.

Snip: Imagine It Without "Clunkers"

Cash for Clunkers wasn't a boon for sales-tax revenues, said Mark Rapin, president of the Fresno-Clovis New Car Dealers Association and vice president of Freedom Ford in Fresno, because many new vehicles sold during the July and August program were smaller and more energy-efficient -- and less expensive.

To reap sales tax dollars, "the dealers had to sell two or three times as many [of the smaller vehicles] compared with prior years," when more expensive vehicles such as large pickups and luxury vehicles were targeted by buyers, he said.

(Source)

Arizona: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, x2

Like most states, Arizona is facing an enormous revenue shortfall, but what sets them apart from their more sane brethren is that they seem to have no shortage of harebrained schemes.

Last season, Jason Jones of The Daily Show hilariously ridiculed a proposal to sell their state capital building for $735 million, with the idea that they could lease it back for $1.5 billion over the next twenty years. (Clip embedded, below)

Unfortunately one idea that didn't fail on its own lack of merit might best be described as the highway robbery of their state parks.

Granted, all but the wealthiest communities have always had a huge park maintenance backlog and its always been somewhat acceptable to slash their operating cash in times of need, but what sets Arizona apart is that taxpayer funds have become an increasingly lower percentage of their total park budget, culminating in the fact that in 2010, they weren't expecting any public money and had been planning to survive entirely on user fees.

So, you can imagine the surprise, when the legislature voted to steal $11.5 million (60%) of the monies they didn't contribute from the budget which went into effect, six months ago.

Renee Bahl, director of Arizona State Parks is now charged with deciding which parks to close.

Her instinct may be to shutter those which generate no fees or operate at a loss, but because fences may need to be erected and security systems installed at some historic structures, she's facing a modern day Morton's fork; There's no good outcome, no matter which way she goes and naturally because many communities rely on their parks to generate tourist revenue -- lower tax income, failing businesses, a depressed local economy and consumer ill will are sure to follow.

Not to mention that historically, Arizona is loath to replace what they've already stolen.

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Arizona State Capitol Building for Sale
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Follow-Up: They closed nine and kept five, some with reduced hours/services and some with local contributions.