The List and the Lunatic

I’ve applied to have my house added to the Local List of Historic Places. The application process started about a month ago. I had to go down to the city hall and fill out a form. I submitted a long letter outlining the various elements of the house along with a brief history of the original owners. Then some members of the Preservation Commission came by the house and looked it over form the outside. In short, everything was going well and today is the day the Commission meets to give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The meeting is in the City Council chambers down at City Hall in about 2 hours.

Part of the process allows members of the public to comment on my application as part of the public record. The meeting agenda is posted at City Hall and property owners with-in 300 feet of my property are sent notices that I have applied to have my house listed. This gives them an opportunity to make comments in person. I also received a notice of the meeting. This notice had a copy of my original application and my write-up of the property, along with copies of any public comments that have been made. There was one written comment along with the notice.

The comment was from a Jerry Droz. It is a long, rambling, disjointed discourse on just about anything relating to the city that seems to have popped in to his little head while he was writing. There are 3 sentences in the first paragraph that have to do with my house. The rest is filled with parables and denunciations of city leaders, and all sorts of other crap. He peppers the letter with sentences like, “I will determine what is best for this City and I shall steer you in the right direction nor will I mislead you”. He signs the letter City & County Director and Acting Mayor. I’ve since learned that he appoints himself to various posts in the city and county. He also list a real-estate developers license.

About my house he says that my property should not be considered because it already fits in the category of a historic structure (Huh?). He says it should already be on the Historic Registry but he does not think it should be added until it is cleaned up(Whaaa?).

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my house is less than perfect. However, and not to toot my own horn, I would like to point out to Mr. Droz that I bought my house about 3 years ago. In that time I’ve replaced every inch of wiring and plumbing. Removed the asbestos siding. Removed a 2 story addition. Repaired or replaced exterior elements damaged by the siding installation. Stripped all walls of old wallpaper. Stripped acres of paint off woodwork. Stripped all floors of old carpet, vinyl, etc. Redid the bathroom. Made a zillion dump runs. This house was a drug den and neighbors have personally thanked me for cleaning up the property and getting rid of the drug dealing and riffraff. Right now I’m in the process of doing the kitchen. Oh, I also remolded the 2 apartments over the garage and have them rented out to some very nice people. AND I did all of this work by myself!!

Now here is the real kicker. Today as I was at work (my work takes me on the road a lot). I passed by a property about 15 blocks from my house. It is a sorry looking little place from the 60s or 70s with a flat roof and no imagination give to the exterior at all. It is vacant, run down, and the yard is over grown. The place is an eye-sore in every sense of the word. Hanging on the front of the house over the front door was purple banner about 3X4 feet that said “Jerry Droz Developer”. I just about crapped right there. I had to go around the block just to make sure I saw what I saw.

After seeing that I have only one thing to say to Mr. Jerry Droz: Mr. Droz, go fuck yourself.