Road to Nowhere (25 page)

“Just need to talk,” he said, dour as ever.

“Then go right ahead.”

“I talked to Steve Carter.”

“What did he think?”

“I expect he’ll decide he’s willing.”

“Then we need three votes.”

“I don’t see that happening.”

“Did you talk to Randy?”

“I haven’t. But this would be a way to put an end to the road.”

“Joe, you always think the worst of people. I think he’d want everything to be fair.”

“That might be.”

“Well, it might not matter anyway.” This would be her surprise. “Because
I
talked to Eliza this morning.”

If Joe could have looked more sour after she said that, she’d never seen it. “Oh, you did?”

“I did. And she said she might vote yes.”

She waited for Joe to answer, but she might as well not have. She could have waited forever by the way he was scowling.

“Anyway,” she said, finally, “I’ll move we appoint him.”

She waited again, and this time she decided he’d have to say something. And she waited more, and Joe might as well have been just an old dusty block of granite. But she kept waiting and smiling, and he finally said what was on his mind.

“I wonder if you should.”

“Well, Joe. Of course. Why shouldn’t I?”

But that was it. He stood up and said a good-bye. Nobody would accuse Joe Esterhouse of not having any sense, but he was about as hard to understand as Eliza was.

June

June 5, Monday

Empty chairs, just sitting there.

Time to start. It was all that Randy could do to not stare at them.

Joe knocked his gavel, as if it were just the same as always. “Come to order.” Of course, Joe would be seeing the two empty chairs like everyone else. “Go ahead, Patsy,” he said.

It was like last December, when Mort’s chair had been empty and they’d all known why, or like last month, with the other empty chair. But now two empty chairs!

“Mrs. Brown?”

“Here.”

“Mr. Esterhouse?”

“Here.”

“Eliza?” Everybody looked around, even though they knew she wasn’t there. “Eliza Gulotsky?”

They waited a moment, but of course she wasn’t there.

Then Joe said, “And Wade’s not here, either.” Just like he had in December. That way Patsy didn’t have to call out the name, which would have been just terrible. “Mark that seat vacant.”

“All right, Joe,” she said. “Mr. McCoy?”

“Right here,” he said. Good gravy, where was Eliza? He was suddenly having real terrible feelings.

“Three members present, Eliza Gulotsky is absent, and one seat vacant, Joe.”

“Thank you, Patsy. Jefferson County North Carolina Board of Supervisors is now in session.”

“Joe?” Louise looked pretty upset. “Do we know where Eliza is?”

“Anybody know that?” Joe asked and waited.

“I thought she’d be here,” Louise said.

“We’ll just go on,” Joe said. “Motion to accept last month’s minutes?”

Randy looked at Louise. It was just the two of them to do it, and they did, like they always had. But then a voice interrupted them from the audience.

“Do you have a quorum?” It was Luke Goddard.

“Well, we don’t,” Randy said, “do we?”

“What is quorum?” Louise asked.

“Four of us,” Randy said.

“Two-thirds,” Joe said, thinking.

“Then we’re short,” Randy said, doing his math. Three out of five was less than two-thirds. “We’d need four members.”

Louise was doing math, too. “But is it two-thirds of five or two thirds of four?”

Joe had finished thinking. “Quorum is based on members, not seats. Three present is more than two-thirds of the members. We have a quorum.”

“Wait a minute,” Everett said. “This won’t stand. You’re short of quorum. You can’t vote.”

“No, he’s right.” That was the lawyer from Gold Valley, Jim Ross. “They do have a quorum.”

Bang! Joe was back in action.

“This board has four members, and more than two-thirds are present.”

“Have we declared the position vacant?” Randy said. “Officially? Because if it isn’t vacant yet, don’t we need a quorum to say that it is?”

“Of course it’s vacant.” Louise was looking at him like she might do some violence. “We don’t need to vote on that.”

“But that’s only because you said so.” Luke Goddard had jumped up again. “Is that all it takes to make it official that the seat is vacant? I’m just asking, Joe. Are you sure that’s all it takes?”

For the moment there was quiet, and everyone was watching Joe. And Joe stared back at them all.

“The man is dead,” he said. “His seat is vacant.”

The silence after that was like running into a wall. Randy leaned back in his chair, being real careful so it wouldn’t creak, just getting out of the way of the silence because otherwise he didn’t know what might happen.

The back door of the room opened.

Every eye turned to see who it was. Randy felt a sweat break out, just picturing the sheriff’s deputy coming in like last month.

It was Eliza Gulotsky. “I apologize,” she said. “I was delayed.”

“Mark that Eliza is present,” Joe said while everybody watched her glide up the aisle to her seat. “Point of order for the evening, as the board has an empty seat, vote of a tie on a motion is considered that the motion does not pass. Three votes majority is required for a motion to pass. “We have a motion and a second to accept last month’s minutes,” Joe said. “Go ahead, Patsy.”

“Mrs. Brown?”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Esterhouse?”

“Yes.”

“Ms. Gulotsky?”

“I vote no.” Well, that hadn’t changed.

“Mr. McCoy?”

“Yes.”

“Three in favor, one opposed,” Patsy said.

“Motion carries,” Joe said. “Minutes are accepted.”

Just that little struggle had worn Randy out, and he was going to need all his energy for the meeting. He looked out at the room and tried to smile. Somebody needed to.

There weren’t many other empty chairs in the room, and Joe was glaring out at all the filled chairs in the audience. “Next is receiving public comment,” he said, “and I’ll make a few comments of my own first. Most of you are aware we’re likely to vote on appointing Mr. Stephen Carter to the board this evening. I’d prefer it as much as anyone that we had more time to consider the decision. However, state law requires that if the new member is going to vote on Gold River Highway in December, he has to be appointed at this meeting. It is also completely legal for us to appoint him, or anyone, by a simple motion tonight without any prior notification or waiting period.

“Now, we’ve heard from a number of you already on the subject and we’re real open to hearing your comments tonight. However, we would appreciate you keeping your comments short, and I will not allow personal attacks. And please state your name and address.”

“Everett Colony, 712 Hemlock Street in Wardsville.” And here it came. Randy felt his shoulder hunching up a bit, automatic.

“Everyone here knows I had my differences with Wade Harris,” Everett said. “However. I want to state here this evening that despite that, I always had the greatest respect for his work and dedication. I, for one, will miss him greatly, and I regret his loss as deeply as anyone here.”

Randy clamped his jaw. It was good to hear Everett’s real feelings about Wade, as Randy had somehow missed realizing them up to this point.

“To honor him properly, the decision to name his replacement should not be made in a reckless manner.” Everett’s manner changed a bit, from being reasonable to more of his normal tone. Randy found himself leaning forward to get a good hold on the table. “Frankly, I find this unseemly haste appalling. Are we taking his years of service on this board and discarding them in just a few short weeks?

“If you proceed with this vote, it will lack legitimacy. You will be tainting the whole Gold River Highway project even further.

“Therefore, I demand, out of respect for Wade Harris, that this vote be delayed for at least another month. It is the only proper and honorable thing to do.”

There was something of a murmur of agreement in the audience. The highway might be a consideration, that was for sure, but the more important issue was respect for Wade. It was a nice point, except for Everett Colony being the one making it.

There was the usual rustling and coughing as people were deciding if they’d go next.

“I’m Fred Clairmont. 715 Washington Street in Wardsville. I’d like to say that I’m sure Mr. Carter is a wonderful man, probably just what this board needs, and what Gold Valley needs representing them. But I have to agree with Everett that this is just too fast. That’s my only concern, just that it’s only been a week that we even heard the name.”

“Richard Colony, 713 Hemlock in Wardsville. I agree with most of what has been said here so far, except I’m not as sure Mr. Carter is as qualified as has been suggested. He’s been a resident of the county for just five years and he’s quite a bit younger than most people who serve on this board. More importantly, he has his own business, I understand, and that could bring up some conflicts of interest if he were to be voting for the benefit of his own business over the interests of the county. In fact, it seems kind of callous of him to be pushing himself onto the board, and I’d have to wonder what his real motives were.

“I also want to point out that Steve Carter is on the Planning Commission. We’re supposed to have one person on the commission who’s on the Board of Supervisors, and that’s Randy. We’re not allowed to have two. So I don’t know if you even can appoint him.”

Louise had been looking pretty annoyed, and finally she just couldn’t hold it in.

“Poppycock,” Louise said. “If he’s appointed, he can resign from the Planning Commission. Or Randy can. That’s no reason. And Richard, I’ve got my own business, and so does Randy, and Joe runs his own farm. Do any of you have anyone better to suggest?”

“No, of course not,” Richard said. “But if there were more time, someone else might come up.”

“Does anybody have someone else better?”

In her own way, Louise could be almost as intimidating as Joe, especially as she wasn’t nearly as often. Richard sat down, and it was going to take a brave person to be the first to comment after that.

Then someone stood up, and the Mountain View people eased back in their chairs, away from the podium, as if they were afraid of catching the plague.

“My name is Jim Ross and I live at 4500 Eagle’s Rest Drive in Gold Valley.” The lawyer.

“I think we need to be very clear,” Mr. Ross said. “These objections aren’t about Mr. Carter, or even about honoring Mr. Harris’s memory. These objections are all about Gold River Highway, and trying to prevent a representative of Gold Valley from having a vote on that highway.

“I believe we need to consider Mr. Carter strictly on his merits. If he is qualified, then appoint him. There’s no need to delay. If he isn’t qualified, then wait to find someone who is. That’s the commonsense issue.

“Furthermore, I believe the record shows that Mr. Carter is qualified. Five years residency is far more than the six months required by state law, and is manifestly adequate to qualify him to represent Gold Valley. To be successful as a consulting civil engineer demonstrates the highest level of proficiency in the very fields of expertise necessary for service on this board. Finally, Mr. Carter has always demonstrated the highest integrity and character. Speaking personally, as a resident of Gold Valley, and as a friend of Mr. Carter who knows him well, I would be sincerely honored to have him representing me and my district on this board.”

It must have been an effort to not finish with,
I rest my case.
But before Mr. Ross would have even had a chance to, Everett was on his feet.

“He doesn’t mean a word of that. He doesn’t care who’s representing him, as long as they’ll vote for Gold River Highway.”

Crack, and everyone jumped. Joe was waving his gavel.

“That’ll be enough,” Joe said. “Dr. Colony, I believe you’ve already had your turn for this evening. I also won’t allow personal accusations. I’ll close the comment period if this continues, and require that people leave if they can’t maintain order.”

But Everett had made his point. And Mr. Ross had been right, too, of course. Nobody was saying anything they really meant. It was the highway over everything.

Steve Carter had moved up a row, to behind James Ross’s seat, and once Mr. Ross sat down, Steve leaned forward to speak to him, quietly. Mr. Ross didn’t seem to care at that point, though.

Another minute passed after that, and between Louise frowning and Joe staring and Everett scowling and Mr. Ross glaring, nobody else could make themselves stand up.

It might also have been because most of the people there were from Mountain View, and they’d been counting noses, which Randy could do just as well. Louise would vote yes, and Joe, too, and then Eliza would vote no, and it would come down to him, and all his neighbors in Mountain View probably were assuming they knew how he’d vote. That assumption would be that he’d vote no, and of course, that was the assumption he’d been making himself. Then that would most likely be the end of Gold River Highway.

“Then we’ll close public comment,” Joe said. “Now we have a number of other items on the agenda and we’ll cover those fast as we can, and then we’ll be open to new business, which this would be.”

Joe read the items one by one, and Randy hardly paid attention, which was what they deserved. It was the responsibility of the Board of Supervisors to treat each item with due consideration. About thirty seconds’ consideration for each item was plenty.

“Is it time now?” Louise asked.

They’d gotten to the end of the agenda items, where they could propose whatever motions they wanted.

“Go ahead,” Joe said.

“I’ll move that we appoint Stephen Carter to fill the empty seat.”

“There is a motion,” Joe said, “that Stephen Carter be appointed to the vacant seat on this board, representing the Gold Valley district. Is there a second?”

Silence. Now, that would be a problem right there. The rule was that the chairman could not make motions or second them. And as it was that no pigs had sprouted wings lately, Eliza did not appear to speak.