Will We Make Progress Every Day in 2009?

Good bye, 2008, from the chaps who run party and charter boats in and around Cape May County. May the incoming year be filled with fish, fair winds and more fares.
Unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool angler, you probably don’t know how the weather, drought of fish, high fuel prices and a dismal national economy took a big chunk out of fishing boat bank accounts.
Dan Glaze, of the Cape May County Party and Charter Boat Association reports monthly to the county Chamber of Commerce about the group. His honesty ought to place him in a elected political office.
At the Dec. 18 meeting, held at the Lobster House, Glaze, seated by a window, urged everyone to look out the window and see the moored fleet, waiting for fish, time and tides to improve.
As he put it, fishing stunk, wind blew too much, and clientele stayed home. They must have eaten fish sticks or otherwise filled their baskets with fish someone netted a thousand miles from here.
Charter boats were hit with a tidal wave of fuel bills that made captains and fishermen think twice about heading over the horizon.
Party boats, the average Joe and Jane’s way to hook some flounder or weakies, sometimes left the dock with just enough paying souls to cover the fuel bill.
But striper season has been good, he said, which is some solace to those who love those whopper striped bass.
Good bye, 2008, from everybody involved with the real estate business.
The sales people and their agencies had less than a stellar year, and it was reflected in the county clerk’s office, which is the ultimate check on how the market did.
Compared with years gone by, when the clerk’s office was awash in cash from real estate transfers, just the opposite is true this year.
That translates into a painful fact that all county taxpayers will find out sooner or later, the county tax rate will likely go up, a penny at least, which translates into big bucks the more your house is worth.
Good bye, 2008, from the Trenton trend setters. If the county’s in a pickle, multiple that 21 times and its that bad for the state.
Gov. Corzine, who brought his road show to Court House last January in an attempt to sell a parkway toll hike, has been ordering more red markers and red pens for his cabinet.
If the state’s economy could have mended as quickly as did its chief executive after his parkway crash, we wouldn’t be fretting digging deeper for missing state aid.
As the old year dwindles, I wonder a few other things:
When will the plague of drunk drivers end? Why don’t they just stay off the roads after they drink?
When will parking garages become fashionable, especially in placed like Cape May where parking is impossible?
Will the railroad ever become viable in this county?
Will the coming year be the one when the No Child Left Behind law is declared illegal?
Will traffic on the Cape May-Lewes ferry increase dramatically next year?
What will all the people on unemployment do in the future?
How deep is the treasury? Can we keep printing money? Will six generations from now ever pay for all we are spending today?
Will mean-spirited Spouters ever learn to love their neighbors?
Can we expect to recycle more and waste less?
Will the former Stop and Shop in Rio Grande become a roller skating rink in 2009?
Will electric vehicles become more popular on barrier islands?
Can we expect to see something material being done to eliminate the three deadly grade crossings in Middle Township on Garden State Parkway?
Each year holds a supply of good and bad, but 2008 had more of one than the other.
We lost some good friends, including our Editor Emeritus Joe Zelnik. His spirit looms large in the Newsroom, and each of us who knew him have felt his overpowering presence at certain times, especially when our stories lacked that certain “something.”
Nor have we escaped the shrinking economy, which is squeezing many county businesses as they have never been squeezed in the past. We have said good bye to some good folks, and it broke our hearts to see them leave. We must trust that it was all part of a larger plan for them and us.
What awaits in the coming 365 days? Perhaps it is better not to know. That means taking each day as it comes, and putting our faith into the hands of the Almighty, whatever we believe Him to be.
In Sir Winston Churchill’s words, “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.
You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”