Or maybe that should read ‘whoa bellie’, as in Bellissimo. A plague of locusts does seem to be descending upon Signor B. I can’t make a first hand report on the visuals at the new dressage facility, aka Equestrian Village (without the village, since that has not been approved just yet), but I have heard reports ranging from the place being wrapped up in yellow crime scene tape to it being very, very quiet over there. I think it’s safe to assume there won’t be any off-season stall rentals any time soon.
Something else I can’t share with you first hand (unless some kind soul sends me or posts a link at the bottom of this blog), are the most recent letters to Sr. B from the Wellington Town Council, which elucidate some newly discovered violations which, under someone else’s watch, might have fallen into the category of ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’, but under the current Town Council qualify for status as ‘you aren’t going to get away with this anymore, bucko’. Under fire now are the actual structures otherwise known as barns. According to the letter from Growth Management Director Robert Basehart, the stables that were built don’t resemble those at the Jim Brandon Center that had been promised when the building permits were granted last year.
I do love a good bit of irony, don’t you? If there was a facility ESP was seeking to strip of its status as Welly World’s premier dressage venue it’s the Jim Brandon. It almost makes me chuckle, but not quite, that the permits were sought and received based on a promise that the barns would be identical to those at the Jim Brandon. Wait a minute. Maybe this is what happened: Signor B realized the place wouldn’t be snazzy enough if it looked too much like Jim Brandon, so he threw in some extra dollars and made it fancy. According to what I’ve heard, those stables are pretty awesome from a horse’s comfort point of view. It sure is too bad some people have to try and do everything by circumventing the rules, when they could save themselves and their investors all kinds of grief by just playing by them.
Further to the ‘berm’ (aka pile of dirt) infraction, a cease and desist order has now been filed for the Equestrian Village. The penalty for desisting to desist is $10k per day, so I can understand the reason there isn’t much boarding going on right now.
The burden of naughtiness is not all to be borne by Signor B, though. According to a Palm Beach Post story that I can post here for all of you to peruse, a Welly World vet has been found guilty of that most heinous of white collar crimes: failing to recuse himself from a meeting regarding the Equestrian Village proposal last year. For those of you who, like me, haven’t had sufficient run-ins with practitioners of the legal profession to know what it is to recuse yourself, it’s just like excusing yourself, only for lawyers and politicians. If you ever have a politician for dinner, don’t be surprised if he or she asks to be recused from the table.
I know I sound like a broken record, but gee willikers. Would it have been so hard to do this without breaking the law and alienating half (or more) of the community? Or does the bad blood between the yayers and the nayers run so deep that the only way is to try and blow past all authority Dukes of Hazzard style? Where’s Boss Hogg when you need him?
