24 years ago......

...... I had an in the ground swimming pool installed. I did everything legal with a permit and everything. Who knew that 24 years later I'd find out that in those 24 years the rules would change and the town would require that I get a variance to replace what was approved by them those 24 years ago? Tonight was my variance hearing.

I arrived at town hall 45 minutes early to be sure I was on time. I met a woman that was renewing a permit for a mother-daughter house. Her permit wasn't to build a house, but to renew a permit that MUST be renewed every three years forever and ever and ever every three years. WTF is that all about? Does that mean once her 94 year old mother dies that she will no longer allowed a permit? WTF do they expect her to do then? Tear the house down? I just don't get it.

My turn finally came to face the powers that be. The leader of the review board read the verbiage from my application.

Permission to blah, blah, blah, replace what was done 24 years ago when there were no rules covering this.

The board called someone from the zoning department up to speak. She explained how my pool was in violation. I mentioned that this was installed in 1984 and the town inspector even checked it out and said it was okay. The leader said that since there were no rules 30 years ago 24 years ago but no way I was going to correct him and to make me bring this up to today's code would require me to tear everything down and move my pool, he recommended that they forget the whole thing and approve the variance.

"All in favor say Aye!"

"Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye."

"Motion granted!"

They all even wished me a good night.

I got my variance and I'm a happy camper.