ROYSTON: THE TOWN THAT TIME FORGOT...OR AT LEAST MISPLACED.
A week or so back, there was a news report about the discovery of the body of a pilot who disappeared almost sixty years ago in Alaska. The body was frozen and well-preserved.
This cadaver had nothing on the city of Royston....except maybe time frame. We have been frozen in place for at least twenty years, with short interludes of thawing to allow for further deterioration.
What brought this to mind were a few headlines gleaned recently from the local papers, The News Leader and The Franklin County Citizen. Here they are, some paraphrased:
"ROYSTON VOWS TO CRACK DOWN ON JUNK CARS"
COUNCIL REVERSES ITSELF
DOWNTOWN CLEANUP, LONG RANGE PLANS
STRAY DOGS HAVE GOT TO GO
Were these headlines from March, 2006, or March, 1986? If you guessed the former, you are wrong. All of the above issues were the concerns of the Royston City Council twenty years ago. Only the names are omitted, to protect the inept.
Here were the issues then, as they are now:
JUNK CARS
Listen to this from the News Leader of February 14, 1985, and the Citizen of the same date. The council voted to get tough on junk cars "immediately" by writing letters to offenders and giving them ten days to clean up or to be summoned to city court. The city attorney said that, after all, it was not as if it were a "surprise", since the ordinance on junk cars had been on the books since 1977!
The attorney said that dealers were required to erect fences or shrubbery to hide their junk cars.
Indeed!!
QUICK TURNAROUND AT THE COUNCIL
Think the council did a quick about face recently when it set working hours from 8 to 5, then two weeks later decided to let the city manager (who was the target of the earlier action) set working hours for city employees? Listen to this:
In March of 1986, the council voted to deny a wine license for the convenience store being built at the corner of Church Street and Old Elbert Road, near the Church of God. The City attorney advised them that they were on shaky legal grounds. Nevertheless, the Mayor broke a 3-3 tie and voted against the license. Two or three days later, he called a special meeting, admitted he goofed, and reversed his vote.
CLEANUP AND GROW
In February of 1985, the council voiced concern about a deteriorating building downtown. The city attorney was instructed by the council to give the owner sixty days to fix it up. Meanwhile, the two owners decided to sell. (The only difference today is that if the council took such strong action...which they won't.....the owners would refuse to sell,)
And in January of 1985, the city voted to spend an estimated $1,506.62 for a marketing study to see what could be done to revitalize downtown. Obviously, it didn't work.
DOGS, DOGS, DOGS
In February, 1985, deteriorating buildings were not the only matter of concern with the city council. Seems that back in olden times, dogs were allowed to wander at will around the streets of Royston. The council was about to take action on the stray dog problem when one astute councilman jumped in. Not so fast, he warned.
The Franklin County Citizen quoted the zealous councilman, "I think we need to use common sense. There's some of these dogs running around here that probably are good dogs. You usually can distinguish (the good dogs from the strays). These old stray dogs is what we need to work on first and try to talk to (the owners of the good dogs) about these things---just not go out there and start grabbing up dogs."
The Citizen reported that the councilman was then charged by the full council to go down to Elberton to see how they were handling stray dogs.
Now the truth is out!! If there is a stray dog problem in Royston today, it's not the council's fault. It's Elberton's! They showed us how.
Alas, Royston is perhaps one of the few places that Rip Van Winkle, were he alive today, could take a twenty-year nap, wake up, and find that nothing had changed.