This one's for you

The world don't know what me and Wayne might do.

As another work week draws to a close and another weekend is about to begin, a few Business After Hours thoughts come to mind.

For starters, I have been asked several times – since Brandy Chandler first reported that liquor might be served at the old Colony Theater – what I thought of the idea.

Personally, not much. I am about as apathetic or at least ambivalent to the concept as I am about uptown cruising. I don't care. Really, I don't.

What I do care about is how much I pay in annual taxes and how those taxes are utilized.

In the cases (pun intended) of the Colony and the Cruising issues, the taxpaying public ought to be smart enough to remember that both causes cost you money. The cruising issue cost taxpayers' money in local law enforcement overtime. The Colony Theater issue cost (past tense) taxpayers' money in a variety of ways.

If the taxpayers who have subsidized the Colony in years past, approve, by popular vote, the license to sell booze at no additional expense to taxpayers, I couldn't care less. But let the voters decide.

Likewise, if cruising returns to Hillsboro at no additional expense to taxpayers, I couldn't care less.

Neither issue concerns me in the least.

However, if taxpayers are ultimately forced to pick up additional expenses in either case, someone ought to be held accountable. Without asking for the public records, I think it's a safe wager that the privately owned theater on Harry Sauner Road has paid more local taxes and hired more local workers than the Colony in the past decade or more.

* * *

For those who missed it (like the city mayor and safety service director), the Hillsboro City Council Finance Committee met this week.

One council member asked Hillsboro City Auditor Gary Lewis: "In terms of what we had anticipated in funding, are we on target?"

"As of right now, no," Mr. Lewis respond.

The city's general fund is a serious concern for some in public office. Others seem about as ambivalent as I am about beer drinking at the Colony. That's too bad. (Of course, my ambivalence will not bankrupt the city.)

* * *

And then there was the discussion at a public meeting this past Wednesday…

"He was let go," his former co-worker said.

"He" deserved better.

After many years of honorable service with his former company, "he" received a Monday morning telephone call that the new boy on the block was "going in a different direction."

(South?)

You'll have that (cowardly phone calls) on the big jobs.

To say the least, it was an enlightening and informative conversation. We talked about theft. We talked about outrageous obsessions, and we talked about friendships.

The only conversation that really mattered was about friendship.

Life moves at its own pace. Maybe it moves at God's pace. In either case, I'm confident that the old saying, "When one door closes, another one opens," is accurate.

Good people deserve more than a chicken-crap phone call.

* * *

Did I mention that The Highland County Press has a new columnist?

If not, please be advised that Mr. Jim Thompson is now writing for the only locally owned newspaper in Highland County. Thank God, he's not from Philadelphia!

Mr. Thompson is a graduate of Hillsboro High School. He grew up in the Marshall community, and he attended college at the University of Cincinnati in the same decade I did. (I'm younger, though!)

Mr. Thompson's first column for the HCP is entitled "Green Acres and Swamp People."

I liked it. And I hope you do as well.

* * *

One last thought I'd like to share.

Last week, I delivered a part of my son's newspaper route in Concord Township. At one point, a man in a blue pickup truck blocked my path and waved me to the side. No big deal for me.

I pulled alongside and asked "What's up?"

"Are you delivering (such and such)?" he asked.

"Nope, I replied. I'm delivering The Highland County Press. Would you like a copy?"

"I've already read it, but leave another one at the next house," he said. "The Highland County Press has the best sportswriter around. And tell Ryan I said that."

I drove off with a smile on my face.

As a former sportswriter, myself, I'm smart enough to know that the HCP's Stephen Forsha has written more words about Highland County student-athletes than any other sports writer in local history. That is a fact.

* * *

OK. One more last thought. Everyone ought to read Lori Magulac's letter to the editor.

Rory Ryan does not own a bracelet. Never has. If he did, it would not read "WWRRD."