Hits and Misses
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fern Sibert has for nearly a decade coordinated cleanup and beautification projects in Washington County. For her latest project, ABC Promise, Sibert requests the assistance of local schools, municipalities and organizations like Girl or Boy Scouts.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Citizens Library serves as a drop off location for Sibert’s ABC Promise initiative. Folks are welcome to donate clean pop bottle lids in the back entry foyer during regular library hours.
As we have noted on this page before, the amount of litter that is strewn along local roads is unsightly and makes a horrible impression on people passing through the region. It bothered Fern Sibert sufficiently that she decided to do something before her children came for an Easter visit nine years ago. She recently told the Observer-Reporter, “I was embarrassed because Jefferson Avenue and Jessop Exit ramp looked like dump trucks just dumped their load there. I called my friend and said, these exit ramps need cleaned up. It was knee-deep against the fences. It was terrible.” She still leads local highway beautification efforts and has recently started the ABC Promise Partnership. The initiative encourages people to send bags full of clean plastic caps to Green Tree Promises, LLC, so that they can be recycled and used to make picnic tables and park benches. Sibert said the goal is for five tables and 150 benches to be made for Washington County from the plastic caps. Sibert summed up this admirable endeavor this way: “Cleaning up the streets, that’s where my passion is. Washington County belongs to all of us. It’s our home. My biggest goal is to get litter off the highway.”
It’s fair to wonder if James Roman is a frustrated actor, because he certainly brings no shortage of drama to Washington County’s register of wills office. The latest soap opera involving Roman found him unwilling to hand over documents to county controller April Sloane so she could complete an audit of his office. She wanted the documents because of “inconsistencies in prior years compared to documentation.” Roman’s unwillingness to hand them over, and alleged threats to fire Sloane’s audit manager in January, forced Sloane to issue a subpoena for them. The subpoena, which was delivered by sheriff’s deputies, also requires Roman to attend a meeting with Sloane next week to discuss the audit. Roman claims he has been cooperative, but Sloane countered that it has been “forced cooperation.” Stay tuned for the next episode…
If you need any additional proof that some people simply need better things to do with their time, consider the “scandal” that is now enveloping the first couple. President Biden and Jill Biden recently went to dinner at the Red Hen, an upscale Washington, D.C., eatery where, horror of horrors, they both ordered the same menu item. The Bidens each enjoyed rigatoni with a salad and grilled bread and butter. Judging by the photos of the dish that have turned up online, the rigatoni looks delicious, and you can hardly blame them for both wanting it. However, some habitues of high-end dining were aghast. One tweeted, “I would definitely glare at my husband if he ordered the same thing as me because obviously we need to try as much of the menu as possible!” Another told The Washington Post, “Getting the same thing as the person you’re eating dinner with is silly. The whole point of going out to eat is getting to try as many things as possible.” What’s actually silly, though, is spending even one second of your precious time thinking about what the Bidens, or anyone else, orders at a restaurant.