The Result of Obstructionism

Way back in 2004, our neighbors at Biltrite Sign Service here on 18th St. saw an opportunity to expand their business.



The Bad News - View South

  It was time to fish or cut bait. They knew they could decline expansion, cut back on the number of employees, limit the size of the service fleet. Stay a mom-and-pop company. Do a smaller volume of business. Perpetuate the status quo.

Or, it seemed, a better idea would be to expand. The building they were using was a family-owned residential house onto which service bays and sign construction space had been added.



Southwest

Trucks are bigger now. Bucket lifts are longer and taller, even when retracted. Signs themselves are much bigger than before.

   

Two blocks north of the Biltrite establishment on Third Avenue, there was a large vacant lot. It was for sale. The company decided to buy that site and build a brand-new home for the Biltrite Sign Service.



West

It was perfect. Close to the original location. Big enough. Already zoned for heavy industry.

Sounds perfect, like a fairy tale, right? Not to the obstructionists who inhabit the offices of the City of Greeley building permit department.

There were, according to the city guys, problems with 16th St. access, with storm drainage, and with the steel building that was being proposed.

What? Drainage? Where is the drainage going now? Access? Steel building? Figure it out.

Northwest

The city ruled, and would not back off of its rule, that the Biltrite company would not be allowed to construct a steel building.   



 I went over there again Thursday. I stood in the middle of the acreage in question. In any direction, only metal buildings are to be found. Yes, I said only metal buildings. Mud abounds. Access is horrid.

There is no drainage except when large volumes of storm water run out of the vacant lot and down the gutter.



North



So if the Biltrite company was to establish a brick or stucco structure, as the city required, it would be the only building like it for several blocks in any direction.

  

Everything else is metal – grain elevators, truck and farm equipment service buildings, a motorcycle shop, a truck tire shop, a farm supply store, a wood cabinet manufacturer, a couple of World War Two Quonset huts.

North

Clearly, the city did not need the property tax or the sales tax revenue that would have been generated by the sign service. The city was obviously rejecting the Biltrite Sign Service out of hand. A clear case of obstructionism, malfeasance on the part of ego-infested bureaucrats.

The Biltrite family inquired in nearby Evans, and soon built a new facility there with minimal municipal oversight. Greeley lost an environmentally-friendly, vibrant, productive industry.



North-Northeast



The vacant land has remained vacant. People got in the habit of dumping Christmas trees there after the holiday. Mud and weeds remained. Tax revenues went elsewhere.

Hey, good job, city obstructionists. Doing your duty to prevent business from expanding in Greeley.

But that ain’t all. The worst is yet to come.

East-Northeast

Recently we got the news. The same site, the place where an attractive, clean, prosperous, environmentally friendly, vigorous business would have gone . . . the same site will probably soon be used for an oil well drilling operation.


What? An oil well? Yep. It’s probably not British Petroleum that will do the dirty work, but who knows what might happen.


We’ll have noise, vibration, air pollution, all kinds of crap. Not friendly. What about drainage? Does an oil rig look better than a steel building? What about access? For gigantic well drilling equipment?

Oh, to be sure, the drilling interests have come around offering to pay some kind of a pittance to lease mineral rights, along with a “lease bonus” being accepted by some property owners.


For sure, this area is zoned industrial. We knew that when we moved here a quarter of a century ago. Because of the zoning, there are certain realities we have to put up with – the railroad, the farm chemical plant, the electrical generation plant, the auto body shop. 

The city, the obstructionists down at city hall, are mum on the subject of oil drilling. Not a peep. Apparently, you need a building permit from these stiffnecks unless, unless it’s something as grotesque and unfriendly as an oil well.

It’s a case of bravery toward little Biltrite Sign and cowardice or greed when faced with an oil company. True impotence has shown its face. The big-bad-tough-guy inspectors and their good-old-boy bosses have no cojones whatsoever. Oh well. There will be a judgment day. 

-0-

Word of the week: Cojones. There isn’t a delicate translation into English of this Spanish word. Colloquially, it means balls. Courage. Backbone. Strength of conviction. Something some people don’t have.