Crossing the River

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Entry posted by HalcyonSpirit · May 17, 2009

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One month later, I return!

My absence has been a direct result of the end of my senior year of college. Senior design project, exams, job and housing searches... it's been a busy time. But summer is here, and since I've been denied having a job for now, I'm free to work on this more! Woohoo (sorta)!

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Crossing the River

Back in Benzoate, Mayor Vi was tirelessly dealing with the logistics of running a rapidly growing farming community. Unlike Cypress Creek, she had no planner to defer to when making plans became too complicated. As such, the continuous growth of the town was stealing more and more of her personal time away from her. In an effort to streamline the process a bit, she set aside money to construct and operate a census building. Hopefully it would help her keep track of the town's population, farms and needs.

It was a simple building, no fancy exterior or interior. The townsfolk greeted the new building with great enthusiasm. It wasn't the building they were cheering for, however; the people of Benzoate genuinely appreciated their mayor and wanted her to still have a life outside of helping theirs.

The outpouring of support moved Vi. She couldn't be happier with how the community was so tightly knit. She knew half the residents personally, and had met nearly all of the rest at least a few times at the newly opened Farmer's Market.

Her delight led her to finally decide it was time to implement some of the public services that the town was starting to need. The first to go up was a network of basic medical clinics, followed by elementary schools for the growing child population. The volunteer fire and police departments were doing a fantastic job already, so Vi saw no need to have either in official forms.

Unfortunately, while the population of the town was growing, it was the child population, not the working population, that was driving the growth. The rapid development of Cypress Creek next door was drawing away the commuting workers to jobs inside their own city. Benzoate was facing a severe shortage of farm workers. If Benzoate was going to drive off the possibility of degradation new housing would need to be provided. The town's previous method of development that put small areas of houses near the new farms for the permanent residents just wasn't going to be enough.

Against the wishes of her friends, Vi asked Cypress Creek's planner, Jason, for advice. She had no idea how much land to put toward the development and what should go with it, and she figured that since they seemed to be on good terms, Jason would help. If Michele caught wind of it the situation would probably get worse, but she threw caution into the wind and made the call. The conversation was short and to the point, and when she hung up Vi had her answer.

The new section of town, nearby the train stations, extended the main part of Benzoate enough that it could effectively be called a downtown. Vi had followed Jason's advice to the letter and had the expansion crafted specifically to provide a nice place to live for the new residents. Businesses flourished nearby as well. The most noticeable addition, though, was the water treatment plant. When Vi asked Jason for advice, she gave him the newly released census data for review. He suggested the treatment plant because of the farm pollutants contaminating the water system. Her closest friends, upon seeing the data for themselves, had to agree with the assessment, and the treatment plant was immediately built within two months.

The flourishing new section of town brought enough money to the town that Vi decided to make use of the land she had been granted. Unlike Cypress Creek, Benzoate's official borders extended beyond the banks of the Dessan and to the mountains on the other side. The soil on the other side was fertile and ripe of farming. Not wanting to be boxed in by Cypress Creek's rapid expansion to the south, she had two bridges and a ferry system established.

The newly arrived workers helped with the farmland and road system. A month passed, then two, and then five months and a harsh winter later, the new agricultural expansion was complete.

Quite a few of the farms that popped up specialized in things other than food. Many grew trees for lumber or aesthetic purposes, and some exclusively grew flowers for sale in Cypress Creek. One flower farm in particular, however, was dedicated to Vi as a gift for her dedication to the townspeople.

A few months passed, and the town suffered its first great loss. The pastor of the Phantom Cow Church, the town's predominant religious institution, died after a long fight against cancer. In honor of the man, Mayor Vi ordered a town cemetery laid out next to the church so that the pastor could rest peacefully next to the religion he helped establish. All cows that perished in the town would also be buried in the cemetery in the hope that the Phantom Cow would bestow great fortune on the town.

After the ceremony, Mayor Vi returned to her house and pulled up the news on her TV. Cypress Creek, as she had feared, was about to suffer from great unrest. She made preparations for the coming storm...

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