Town Bites
by Edd Merritt

The town bites back.
Beware about becoming too secure at Town Hall. Ask Dave Perrin what can happen if you’re not careful – or, perhaps, if you don’t treat Marlene Mansfield with the utmost respect. She’ll lock you in the vault. It happened to Dave. He wasn’t concerned, however, because storms had been passing through, and he simply figured the electricity went off, and if he waited a few minutes in the dark it would return. He hadn’t banked on Mansfield’s revenge, however. Forewarned is forearmed.

Charlotte becomes home to “Very Merry Summer Camp.”
From a barn in Charlotte to Battery Park in Burlington -- with at least one stop on the Charlotte Library lawn -- the Very Merry traveling theatre troupe of young people have written and produced an original musical adaptation of the “Secret Garden.” From costumes, music, stage decoration to acting, they do it all to the sheer enjoyment of their audiences.

Talking to a lister? Pick your complaints carefully.
On a visit to the lister’s office in Eden, my wife overheard a conversation with a client who explained that due to a death in the house several decades ago, the place was haunted, and, as a result, the value should be quite a bit less than what the assessors established. Seriously, how could you sell a haunted house? Well, that caused me to ask our Charlotte listers for any similar stories they had heard here. Heather Manning told a couple that fall into the “bits-and-pieces-as-evidence” category. Both involve plastic cups full of gunk. Carrying what Heather described as some of the foulest looking water she had ever seen and an equally ugly wet paper towel, one cup came straight off the basement floor. The complainant said something that stinky damp shouldn’t be valued anywhere near the appraised value. The other cup came with splinters from a porch about to detach itself from the house, and the owner asked what that would do to dropping the value? Both owners allowed Heather to keep the cups as exhibits A and B.

At this point in the conversation, Heather’s fellow lister Moe Harvey chimed in with what he termed the “dumb-me ploy.” Several Charlotte residents, he said, have asked whether their stupidity in paying what they did for their houses four years ago could be a de-valuing argument. Then there is the dirty neighbor complaint – the “they-have-so-much-trash-in-their-front-yard-I-couldn’t-sell-my-house-to-a-junk-dealer” story.

Well, whatever works.