Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

Last Thursday night, I checked the web site of The Wake Weekly, and saw that they had an article about the closing of The Corner. I wasn’t terribly surprised, and though I generally check the site on a weekly basis to keep up with what’s going on in my old almost-hometown (ok, I’m really from Youngsville), the main reason I was looking this particular evening was to see if such an article had been posted.

Of course, there was such an article.

For the most part, the article was relatively good. A few reflections about what The Corner meant to people, the surprise over the closing (of course, I had inside knowledge, so …). But then there was this bit …

Tim Beasley, industrial pretreatment coordinator for the city of Raleigh, said the city wanted Chandley to install a grease trap under the sink of the restaurant but that the cost of installation and upkeep may have been more than what Chandley was ready for.

Beasley said the city ordinance states any restaurant that makes any amount of food is required to have a grease trap if it washes dishes in a sink that leads to the sewer system.

When contacted on Tuesday, Beasley said he was rather shocked that the shop had closed its doors.

Beasley said the last contact he had with Chandley was through a letter sent on Sept. 8 to her plumber George Peters, granting The Corner a variance for a smaller, less-expensive, grease trap.

All Chandley had to do next was get a permit from the town of Wake Forest and have the trap installed, he said.

Permit costs range around $60 to $70. Then there’s the cost of installation and cleaning the traps several times a year.

It’s hard to say here whether Mr. Beasley is being disingenous by avoiding discussion about the cost of installation of the grease trap, or whether the person writing the article failed to disclose that. Perhaps it’s a compbination of the two. Regardless, the article makes it sound like Mrs. C closed up shop because she didn’t want to shell out $60 for a permit.

Bad, bad, bad somebody. That ain’t the truth. The fact of the matter is that the actual cost of the grease trap is the straw that broke the camel’s back … and it was significantly higher than the $60 for the required permit.

What we really have here is an example of the true cost of Wake Forest’s water department being merged with Raleigh’s. The Corner isn’t the only restaurant to close its doors because of the grease trap issue … Birkenstock’s on White Street did so as well. It hadn’t been around as long as The Corner, but it was a fixture and an asset to the town as well.

And no, not all restaurants in WF are closing because of the grease traps … but there are rumors that some water department ‘inspectors’ (or whatever they are called) are taking money under the table to turn a blind eye to lack of grease traps in some eatin’ joints. I hardly think this is the case with all of them … some of them can afford the cost of the grease trap, and have happily complied.

I can’t substantiate the rumors … after all, I’m 500 miles west … but from what some folks have told me, there is good reason to suspect such is the case.

In any case … I wonder if the folks who were "pro-merger" would have changed their tune if they knew their precious water bill savings would kill off some of Wake Forest’s treasured businesses. Maybe … or maybe not.

Progress always has a price. We can’t always hold on to the past. But perhaps sometimes, our decisions send parts of our present into the past faster than we wanted.