Unconfirmed reports received here suggest the fellas opening up the Jazz Club are in the process buying up virtually the entire block of South Main where the club will be located. I imagine the land will be needed for parking. If everything goes through as planned, it will mean the end of Epps Feed and Seed, at least in that location.

And while I realize we have to make way for progress, it's a shame that downtown will be losing Epps. It's a wonderful, old timey place that in addition to seed and feed, also sells various liniments for horse and human, fresh eggs, and various other items not readily available elsewhere in the vicinity.

We received a mailing here at the paper yesterday from the jazz club owners, a slick, glossy newsletter giving updates on where things stand (A late summer opening is still on track, they say). With the quality of the mailing, plans for the building and buying up the property, its apparent there's a good deal of money behind this venture so there's every reason to anticipate a quality establishment.

A gentleman from Hall Place was in the office earlier this week talking to me about everything that had been going on in his community. He was obviously distressed that the community association's dirty laundry had been aired in the paper.

Frankly, I wasn't really familiar with everything that was going on. I read some of the letters, but I figured it amounted to just the petty politics and power struggles often found in community associations and volunteer organizations, which has always been a turn off for me.

It seems that regardless of whatever altruistic motives might have spawned such groups, they almost invariably wind up being as much about the personalities involved as the cause.

Anyway, those opposed to the historic district designation were successful in staging a coup and toppling the top officers of the Hall Place Community Association. While they may have won the battle, it's likely they will lose the war. There is simply too much being invested in and around Hall Place (downtown, the Fairgrounds, etc.) to stop the inevitable. Hall Place is historic and will wind up with the designation.