Yet even more water tower lameness

See my earlier posts on the topic here and here, but this water tower nonsense continues unabated. Waxhaw has apparently gone junior high and there was apparently nothing we could've done to stop it.

Earlier today the original recipe Waxhaw Watertower shared the following:

I've decided when I get 500 friends I will switch to friends only. So get on board while you can. Additionally, at midnight on Tuesday, if you are friends with any other of the Watertowers, you'll be blocked from this one. Sometimes you have to make choices. I'm just nudging you along. That is all.

How is this lame? Well, just the idea that someone wants to offer commentary on Waxhaw but only to the first 500 doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If you're so eager to share your opinion on various Waxhaw-related tidbits, why limit it? And why require friendship?

And only to those who aren't friends with the other unoriginal Water Towers that have appeared since? The epitome of 'if you're friends with them, you can't be friends with me?' 

And not to let the other Water Towers off the hook, Waxhaw Water Tower II once again outed REDACTED as the original Waxhaw Water Tower this evening and once again deleted it, with the unfortunate side effect of deleting some of my well-thought out and supremely witty Facebook comments. If it's not clear, I don't like it when that happens.

Why out someone as the original Water Tower and then delete the post? And do this two nights in a row? It does not compute, but it sure does irritate.

At this point, I'd like nothing better than to have all of the Water Towers on Facebook outed so they can be properly and publicly shamed. I'm thinking of something along the lines of what happens to Homer in the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons. Sorry I couldn't find a video link, but I'm thinking of something along the lines of this:

Number One leads the blindfolded Homer to the next test.

Number One: This ritual is called...Crossing the Desert.
             [Homer gets paddled on the butt by Hibbert, Skinner,
            Brockman, Krusty, Moe, Quimby, and Willy in succession]
Number One: And this, we call the Unblinking Eye.
             [he gets paddled by the same people in reverse order]
     Homer: Hey...have you ever noticed that the Crossing the Desert is
            a lot like the Unblinking Eye.  And it's _exactly_ like the
            Wreck of the Hesperus.
Number One: And now, the final ordeal: the Paddling of the Swollen
            Ass...With Paddles.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
 


UPDATE 6/20/13: I've been contacted by someone who was outed by Waxhaw Water Tower II (and duly recorded on this blog) and been threatened with legal action if I did not remove their name. While I'm not certain what legal liability I have with regards to this, as a courtesy to said individual I have removed his name for the time being while I follow up. Fixed a small typo at the same time too.

More watertower madness?

In a follow-up to an earlier post, tonight the Waxhaw Watertower II (WWTII) outed REDACTED as Waxhaw Watertower I (WWT). You following me?

I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but literally seconds after I saw the Facebook post, the WWTII page was no longer available.

In conclusion, I'm getting too old to keep up with this ****.

UPDATED 6/21: Removed a name temporarily due to a legal threat.

Waxhaw cheerleading fracture?

Kristina McDaniel and Rori Burke used to operate the Waxhaw Flyers cheerleading organization. (And to those of you who followed this link, yes, this web page is far too busy.)

If I'm not mistaken, my understanding is this pair got their start via the WAA (Waxhaw Athletic Association) and then left to start the Waxhaw Flyers much to the WAA's chagrin. Per a recent Facebook update to Jim Black's Land of the Waxhaws, it appears Kristina may have now split off to start her own group, Spirit Extreme All Stars.


Assuming I'm reading this right (a big if as I daresay I don't stay up-to-date on the local cheerleading scene), this is good news for local consumers of cheerleading as more options are available for their girls.

But a small part of me can't help but wonder if this may have something to do with the unfortunate incidents that came to light in March of this year with regards to Chad Blume, the Waxhaw resident who faces charges of sexually exploiting a minor and taking indecent liberties with a child and who also happened to be a volunteer photographer for the Waxhaw Flyers.

Like I mentioned in tonight's earlier post, the Blume case is one of those stories where an update is sorely needed.

UPDATE 6/26: A belated update, but I received an email from a representative of the Waxhaw Flyers chalking this up to "creative differences" and not the unfortunate Chad Blume situation. Good luck to both businesses!

Waxhaw mayor charged with DWI

As most of you have heard, Mayor Daune Gardner was recently charged with a DWI among other things.

Per a Enquirer-Journal article:

Waxhaw police arrested Mayor Daune Gardner of Waxhaw early Monday morning with a .18 Blood Alcohol Level.

In addition to the driving while impaired charge, Gardner has also been charged with speeding and driving left of center on NC 16 in Waxhaw.

Later in the article, it is discovered that the mayor's earlier run-in with driving under the influence in Lancaster County 2008 was ultimately expunged. I'd always wondered what had happened with that.

The problem with these types of stories is that the media rarely follows up on the ultimate conclusion. For example, there was never any follow-up on Waxhaw's infamous marijuana growing, gun-collecting dentist.

The Union County Weekly has a bit more of a follow-up:

Gardner apologized to commissioners and Waxhaw citizens at the town’s board meeting Tuesday, June 11, calling Monday’s arrest “embarrassing” and saying she hopes the town can work together to move past these issues.

“I would like to apologize to you, the people of Waxhaw, my supporters and friends, the board and the staff,” she said.  “It is a private challenge that I face, and I will be addressing that in a private manner.  I hope that each of you is able to forgive me for the condition that I have put us in with my actions.  I hope that we can move forward and work together for the betterment of our community.”

The town won’t move forward without taking some steps to address Gardner’s alleged actions, first. Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to audit the mayor’s town credit card expenses and suspend her credit card use until the audit is finalized. Gardner will be put on a reimbursement system like other members of the board for now.

Commissioners will begin the process of censuring Gardner during their next meeting.  The censure process is a formal reprimand from a government body that serves as little more than an embarrassing slap on the wrist and carries no loss of power or authority.  Town councils don’t have the power to remove mayors in North Carolina.

We'll see what comes of all this.

Waxhaw Watertower goes viral?

In recent weeks, some person or persons has taken on the persona of the Waxhaw water tower and created a Facebook page in which he/she/they can sound off on Waxhaw. To the delight of some and the consternation of others would not be an understatement.

For the purpose of this write-up, I will presume there are multiple proprietors of the page since it'd be easier to maintain anonymity in a small town if this were the case. And based on early accounts, they were claiming to be male and female at different points of time. They've built up a pretty sizable audience of 400+ people thus far, a number of whom are rather active commenters.

 It is worth noting that I was Facebook friends with Waxhaw Water Tower (WWT) for a week or so to make it easier to see their Waxhaw-related posts before I realized that this essentially gave them access to all my Facebook posts. After events of the last year in Waxhaw, letting some anonymous person(s) see pictures of my family was unacceptable so I unfriended them. WWT did have a public page though so I could still check for updates manually.

Within the last 24 hours, public access to WWT's posts appears to have been removed, so I can no longer access them. (UPDATE: Late this evening I now see a couple new posts of his, but all posts and conversations up to that point are still disappeared.) Therefore, everything below is my recollection of what I read, so all the details may not be 100% accurate. I find it strange that they'd lock it down when they clearly seem to be cultivating an audience, but what do I know about how a water tower would behave?

The first day consisted of a number of negative early posts about various aspects of town, ranging from the harmless to unusually and unnecessarily slanderous (accusing the proprietor of a local business of literally being in bed with the police because of some sort of sidewalk sale).

A mention of a vague embarrassing moment regarding the mayor would later prove fortuitous to the operators of the page given the mayor's recent DWI arrest.

This early negativity seemed to split Waxhaw (or at least the portion of Waxhaw active on Facebook) between those who were unhappy with all the complaining, but likely more upset about the gossipy posts by the anonymous proprietors and those just lapping it up. A number of criticisms followed, which seemed to have an effect since they soon thereafter began making some positive comments that continue to this day. Nothing terribly significant, but thrown little bones about how Maxwell's Tavern is good and Commissioner Joyce Blythe did a good job at the town's Memorial Day ceremony.

Another immediate response was for others to set up alternative positive-only Waxhaw Facebook pages such as 'What's Up Waxhaw.' I suspect the community banter will be lacking in this group since bad things about Waxhaw are to not be discussed here.

Later responses included:

* A Water tower adult beverage currently available at the Main Street Grill.

* A Waxhaw Water Tower II (WWTII) Facebook page has been created. I would've gone with Son of Waxhaw Watertower personally but to each his own. In this new Facebook page, they quickly outed REDACTED and some co-conspirators as the original WWT. But within 24 hrs, these posts were removed. Kowtowed into silence by the accused? Perhaps we'll never know.

Who knows what next week will bring? Perhaps the bigger question is whether this blogger will even still be active enough to comment on it. If the lateness of this post is any indicator, don't count on it.

UPDATE 6/21: I am told my recollection as to the business WWT slandered was incorrect so I have updated accordingly. I have also removed the name of the rumored WWT temporarily due to a legal threat.