Rocks trash up downtown

Who else looks wearily at the boulders which have been placed on several city street corners as makeshift bollards wondering, when it will be their turn to accidentally brush up against one of those imposing-looking rocks and inflict a few thousand dollars worth of damage to their car?

Folks, this is the Nursery Capital of the World, not Bedrock, so what’s with the Fred Flintstone decor? I’m talking about these boulders somebody placed on the corners of some of our streets to prevent motorists from running over curbs and water drainage systems. This all started quite a while back when large rocks were placed at the intersection of Mullican and the Bypass to protect utility poles there, and then they started to appear on corners off Spring and Donnell and other places. I guess since no one was complaining about the first rock dumping, they figured they could plop a boulder at every intersection.

For crying out loud, the rocks aren’t even decorative. It looks like someone just pulled them out of their field and dumped them on the corners. What’s next, old farm equipment? Or maybe we can place some rusty old trucks at various locations in the city to give it that Freebird Trailer Park look.
We just plopped down a cool $5 million to improve the looks of Main Street and there are plans to blow a few more million on Morford Street, yet we trash up the looks of our city with big old rocks on the corners of many of our streets. If these corners are so important, why don’t we put something less menacing and more attractive there instead of rocks? We are the Nursery Capital, perhaps something to do with nursery would be nice. Am I alone in this? Have I just become too picky, maybe a little too arty?

I think we are getting to a crossroads here in McMinnville as to what is our true identity. Are we McHickville or McMinnville? Well, I’d tell you if I could read the writing on the water tank we’re paying a million dollars for, but the writing is so light in that off-green paint that conditions have to be ideal to see the name of the town up there. It’s like one of those paintings that change as you move. And, you have to basically be traveling east on Colville Street to properly read the city’s name up there.

The thing that is getting me is that we pay millions to make a step forward in the Main Street project and the building of things like the Greenway and the improvement of our public parks. Meanwhile, at the same time Barney Rubble is dumping big old rocks on our street corners, which is like basically topping a juicy T-bone steak with Alpo.

If we are so worried about what message our city is sending visitors and potential new industry leaders, why aren’t we thinking about things which are so apparent? I’m yet to hear one person with a positive attitude toward those boulders. Did no one mention, suggest or point out that placing boulders on the street corners would look trashy?

It’s hard for me to understand what’s going through the minds of some intelligent people around here as I think those making the decisions around here are basically smart individuals. Yet, the boulders just being one example due to my limited column space, we are seeing some really head-scratching stuff going on here, stuff which defies logic. Seems so obvious that even a caveman could understand it.

Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].