News & Citizen

Serving the People of Lamoille County with News Since 1881

Volume 123     No 10 No 5569         August 16,  2007 Thursday                           Morrisville, VT 05661                        Web Edition

Tenney Bridge Closed to Heavy Trucks; To Be Razed Within A Month by Mickey Smith MORRISTOWN – What began as a routine inspection has resulted in a drastic reduction in the amount of weight allowed to travel on the 79 year old Tenney Bridge. continued on page 2 History of Tenney Bridge by Mickey Smith According to Morristown Two Times, the local history compiled by the late Robert Hagerman, Tenney Bridge dates back to 1833. The original bridge was a wooden covered bridge approximately 113 feet long and was built to accommodate the road leading from Colonel Tenney’s property to Safford Mills. continued on page 2 Click here to check out the new Lamoille Restaurant Guide Union Bank Project on Track by Mickey Smith MORRISVILLE – If you judge by outside appearances, you might not think work is continuing at that great a clip at the Union Bank main offices, but Bank President Ken Gibbons said, to the contrary, everything is right on schedule!   For Questions or Comments on this web site please contact webmaster at dan@kingdomsedge.com Fair Play at Holland Cup by Mickey Smith The trip of a lifetime wound up being the learning experience of a lifetime for 24 young ladies from Peoples Academy, as the girls were able to strike up a friendship with a young team from Germany. continued on page 2 HPES Acting Principal Named Cassandra J. Thomas, sixth grade teacher at Hyde Park Elementary School is expected to be confirmed as acting principal for this coming school year by the board at its regular meeting this Monday.  In a letter to the faculty/staff and community, Brian Marshall, board  chair made the announcement.  Marshall also stated in his letter, “Cassandra is an experienced and highly respected teacher.  She has taught at HPES for about five years, and had prior experience in Johnson and at Peoples Academy.  She is qualified to be licensed as a principal, and she is very interested and motivated to assume the role of acting HPES principal for the 2007-08 school year.” continued on page 2 Lamoille County Pet Care Read all the News, Sports and More Click Here To Subscribe Today Looking for something? Search for: Copyright © 2004 News&Citizen Inc. All rights reserved. Have a press release? edit@newsandcitizen.com e-mail correspondence concerning advertising should be addressed to news@newsandcitizen.com

Things Look This Way to Me

Editorial by J.B. McKinley 8/16/07

Forget the $2 Bill

It probably came to you a long time ago, but for me the moment of revelation was the day before yesterday at the gas station.

What happened to twenty dollar bills? I thought, peeling off a $50 bill from a very slender roll. The fill up of my Japanese compact car had just rolled up numbers on the pump greater than $30.  That’s when I realized I’m now getting my paycheck cashed primarily in $50 bills and that’s mostly what I’m using to pay for things. Then, my change comes back and ususally I’m not getting a $20 bill back.

It seems it’s the chicken or the egg question. Is our dollar simply worth a lot less or are things more expensive? But never mind that question – too hard to answer! Ask yourself what we’ll be using next most commonly in the currency line.

I think the debates and U.S. Treasury attempts over several decades to get us to use dollar coins and $2 bills are really addressing the penny ante end of the question. Isn’t it more likely that the Treasury should think about issuing a $200 bill and some $500s and $1,000 bills?

Or is the trend really to plastic and electronic transfers? Will finding a greenback soon be as rare as finding an original piece of  Chinese “cash” in your change – the famous coins with holes in them. Maybe so, but one thing is certain, the actual cards are going to have to undergo a lot of development in the durability area. How many swipe cards have you had that wore out to the point of not functioning? Certainly your average dollar bill takes a lot more abuse than the average debit card and still works. Then there’s the simple fact that cash is very hard to misinterpret. There’s a finite limit to how big a mistake can be made during a transaction when you are handed cash. With a card, the sky  is the limit on mistakes. With electronic access, maybe possible from anywhere on the planet, that’s a lot more access to your money than the number of people who can reach into your pocket and get away clean!

So what do you think? Do you think we are going to be carrying more cash and bigger bills around, (as we have ever since I was born) or will we become a cashless society. Almost as interesting, would be the question, what is driving any change? Crime, ease of doing business, complexity of our transactions, the rising cost of living?

Next time you pull out a Franklin to pay a motel bill or a Jackson to fill your SUV, if you are bored, give these questions a thought. Maybe  that will shorten your trip to Burlington, or make the motel TV fade into the background. Will a world without cash be a very different world? Here’s a thought, since our United States currency is no longer backed with gold, isn’t it simply following the trend for cash to go electronic – it’s not really there in any case, is it?