Patience runs out

Every time I drive by the unfinished apartment complex construction site on US 380 here in little ol’ Princeton, Texas, the more annoyed I get.

I get annoyed because of what I know has not happened there and I get even more chapped over what I believe is going to be the outcome in this dispute.

The site is getting seedier by the day. Weeds are overtaking the giant dirt piles that construction crews left behind when they walked off the job more than a year ago. The weedier it gets, the seedier it becomes and the more difficult it is going to get for anyone to make the site remotely presentable.

I am not going to belabor this point forever and a day. I just feel compelled to express my frustration and annoyance at what I see every damn day I drive by the site. I see an eyesore. It’s a big one and it is a blight on the city my late wife and I chose to call home when we moved here a little more than five years ago.

I learned not long ago that the Princeton City Council granted the zone change in 2017 which cleared the way for construction of the 360-unit complex of “luxury” apartments. Do not misunderstand me … as I do not object to apartment complexes per se. I do object to local government being unable or unwilling to intervene to get this dispute — whatever it entails — resolved between the parties.

In 2017, Princeton had a different city management team, a different mayor and city council. The city has hired some new faces to run City Hall and the council has a new mayor and new council members.

I fear, though, that the battered hulk of a construction site is beyond repair at this point. It has taken too much pummeling from Mother Nature to be saved.