On the other hand, can you blame skeptics, whether so-called “CAVE” people or not, for being skeptical?

When I first reported about this year’s citizens bond committee bond ideas, they were calling for a $211 million bond. Between my first and second stories and the actual call for an election, that had been increased to $215 million. The information I was given at that time mentioned a “southside” elementary in addition to West Main and Pleasant Run replacements. In the final version of the bond proposal, that became another northside elementary. The growth continues to be fastest on the northside, but how did the bond committee call for a southside elementary in the first place? The first phase was pegged at $61 million and came in at $62.7 million.

Phase II was originally listed at $67.7 million and finaled out at $69 million. Did land prices change in a week, or what?

These are small, around-the-edges issues, but they’re not nothing, either. And speaking of nothings, while appearances aren’t everything, they aren’t nothing, either. While it is conspiracy thinking to talk about Canadian bank diktats, it isn’t, to ask questions about the magic phrase “scope creep.”