No Good Deed Goes Unpunished by HHA
There is obviously a lot more than is reported about this story, but the Leader reports that the Houston Heights Association (HHA) fired Paul Carr for building and donating a handcrafted 40 foot long wooden train for the Heights’ Donovan Park.
It Seemed Like a Good Idea
Paul is a long time civic leader for the Heights and a long time member of the HHA. Lately he has been paid $1100/month to take care of Marmion and Donovan Parks. He has done this with happiness and pride.
He recently spent ~$5000 and a huge amount of time building and installing this train set for kids to play on. He didn’t expect or want to be paid. What he didn’t expect though, was to be fired from his job for not getting approval first. What?! That’s asinine! Insurance and safety issues was the official reason.
The HHA did finally accept the train (those issues couldn’t have been too big), but Paul Carr is still out. Politics is involved of course. Old vs new ways of running HHA.
Associations like HHA are always tricky to run. Everybody bitches about what should and should not be done in a neighborhood, but very few people step up to help. Those who do volunteer though often run them like fiefdoms. Good luck to you Paul, and thanks from the community.
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