History Will Absolve Me:

The first time I heard the word “Galaxyfacts” was about eight months after we moved to the Galaxy. I walked into our office and noticed Martha sitting in front of her computer laughing. She was reading messages posted on the Yahoo bulletin board by residents who were not happy with the way the Galaxy was run and managed. Martha had joined the Creative Eye Club a few months after we moved into the Galaxy and received an invitation to join the Galaxyfacts message board soon after. At night we would read the messages but we didn’t dare write anything. I remember asking Martha, who are these people? Why are they so angry? What are they complaining about? If we only knew then what we know now! One night someone asked if anybody knew the name of the construction company that was working on the driveway and planter on the top of the Mall. They couldn’t understand why the company didn’t have a sign out to advertise their name. Another poster wrote that they were hiding their name because they had collapsed the roof of a garage a few months before starting at the Galaxy. Being familiar with building permits, I decided to walk around the work site and find where the permits were posted. I knew the permits would have the name of the contractor and then I would be able to answer the poster’s question. I walked around the entire building a few times but I couldn’t find them. I looked outside the Galaxy office, and in all three lobbies, and on all the doors of the Mall but couldn’t find any permits posted. I decided to write a letter to the General Manager and ask where they were. When I received this letter telling me they were in her office, I immediately became suspicious. It was my understanding that permits should be displayed for the public to view. I sent another letter asking if I could come to her office to see the permits and then received this letter telling me that they were sent to an off-site storage facility called IKON. The manager said she would send me the “bates” number and then I would have to send a letter to IKON with the number to request a copy of the permits. I remember thinking to myself, now I am really convinced something is not right. How could any General Manager worth his or her salt, that has over 15 years experience, send the permits to a storage facility, and not keep a copy in your office? What would the manager do if a building inspector came by and asked to see them? At first, it just didn’t make sense to me… but then I thought about “Nuut’s Bike” from Chapter 5. The reason Nuut didn’t tell me where the brakes were on his bike was because he didn’t have any brakes! I couldn’t imagine that all of this work was not properly permitted so I suspected that the manager, for some reason, didn’t want to show them to me. I decided to make an Open Public Record request from the Town of Guttenberg Building Department. I received this letter from the Town telling me they had no record of any permits or licenses. In my next chapter, I will tell you about what happened during the eight months that passed before I received this letter from the General Manager explaining how she forgot to send me the "bates" number and why I never received a copy of the permits.