Chapter 525: Big Machines

Time to find out what big-boy toys I have to play with inside my big-boy sandbox.

Jobe and his sister were off having a discussion. Their dad took me into his office.

“While the equipment here appears gigantic, these are the smaller or medium-sized products from the various heavy equipment manufacturers. The company owns dozens of warehouses where the manufacturers store and stage their newest heavy equipment after manufacture. They always keep a minimum of the last two of every model they produce with all options in our warehouses. When someone orders one, we ship out the oldest of the ones in the warehouse when the manufacturer delivers the one they just produced when they got the order. No matter how many customers buy, we always store the last two from the factory’s assembly lines in each warehouse. Those are the new ones. Per the contract, the manufacturers will backfill a minimum of two as quickly as possible. If we need more than those two, their dealerships and distributors know that we can buy them at cost with the manufacturer replacing what we purchased,” he explained. “Right now, at our storage yard, we have eleven large dozers that can move forty-five cubic yards and six that can push ninety cubic yards. We own those, and I can get them here by Thursday to begin re-assembling them. I suggest we buy all the forty-five and ninety cubic-yard dozers in the warehouse, plus at least four more from any dealerships that have them ready to ship. The large excavators and rock trucks aren’t a problem to get as many as you can hire operators to run.”

I didn’t know about any of this or what we would need.

We would have some five-hundred-gallon portable fuel tanks brought to the site. The fuel company provides these and is responsible for all the myriad things you must do to keep diesel free of water and contamination. Once the railroad tracks were usable again, we could get railroad fuel tankers brought in to refill the truck that fills the smaller tanks. I reviewed with the manager the various things he suggested we do to prepare for this massive construction project.

I went to say goodbye to the two kids, but they were nowhere near.

If they are hiding out somewhere, I’m not about to look for them.

Molly was waiting for me when I got home.

After taking care of her pregnancy hormonal needs, she thanked me for not getting angry about Nelly. It was something that Nelly needed to move on from the parasite and some other issues she couldn’t start working through without being with me. Her mom greatly appreciated the help in this matter. Nelly’s attitude to life changed for the better immediately after she got home.

I didn’t expect her to tell me that since I had jumped into this new development with both feet, she wouldn’t do all the legwork but would take me to where I needed to go.

First, we had to go into town to pick up the dozens of tubes of building plans my computer in the basement had created. Packets with rendered drawings of each development and construction stage were also waiting. Molly spent most of the night digging through the plans and verifying that my basement supercomputer hadn’t made the decimal precision errors like the original software used for Trudy’s home.

We first had to go to the water and sewer department to review those plans with their civil engineers.

“I’m not sure I understand the need for redundant sewage pipes between the sewage pumping stations. You have multiple pumps and grinders to protect against failures. The distribution of the pumps is already overkill, as is having more than one per station,” one engineer said.

Another CE said, “I like the idea of your building a private sewage treatment plant, but there isn’t any reservoir or river nearby. Where are you going to pump the treated wastewater?”

“I put in redundant pipes because shit happens. It may not happen for thirty years, but if both pumps fail, that will be a lot of crap backed up at that station. With nowhere to go, everything cascades up the line,” I began to explain.

The engineer that asked the question said, “In that case, you are better off building a set of automatic bypasses. You are already spending a boatload of money, so go for the top-of-the-line. The ones I suggest will open when the pressure against the valve exceeds a pre-set limit and close when the pressure drops below the lower limit. They are also manually and electrically controlled with a full array of sensors for remote monitoring. It also allows you to bypass a pumping station for maintenance and repairs.”

“While you will want a bypass system to stop the inflow for maintenance, I suggest you also put a suction pipe at the bottom of each pumping station to drain them. These will be fairly deep and require specialized equipment to pump the sewage up to a truck,” another CE offered. “You are already excavating down that far, so you only have the costs of the pipe and valves. If you have the money to spend, add utility tunnels instead of only conduits. Save you having to dig in to expand when you need more capacity. It wouldn’t hurt to run multiple water mains with bypass valves in maintenance holes where you can isolate a section for repair. You don’t know how often we’ve had geysers going for hours as we chase the cutoff valve for the water main.”

The head woman told me to re-work the drawings with the automatic bypasses and the setup to drain a pumping station out. Her husband worked over in the department that gives the electrical building permits. If I added the power, phone, cable, and whatnot to utility tunnels, she assured me he would only need to rubber-stamp it. The city would happily pick up maintaining and repairing the system once it finished construction.

The permits to start building the public school started becoming a nightmare because it got the school board involved.

Technically, it doesn’t need their signoff if I wanted to get them overridden by the governor.

Back when the fake agent, with the three seekers that I burned out, accused me of being Mr. Smith, Darren, and someone like me, he bribed most of the school board. Two school board members from back then managed to get out of jail. Those two were back on the board, with one elected as head of the school board after retiring.

Instead of a few months in jail and keeping the bribe money, you paid it all, and then some, to the lawyers.

They held a grudge.

“Mr. Jones, coming to play grown-up again?” the head of the school board asked.

I ignored her flippant comment and said, “I am doing a lot of development in the area, including building many neighborhoods. We all know I went to the local public schools, which were already at capacity then. Because of only charging my costs to build these homes and sales commissions, they are selling as quickly as we can build them. For many families, their mortgage payment will be less than a three-bedroom apartment in town. I would be an irresponsible land developer if I didn’t consider the impact of adding thousands of more children to the existing schools. I know I didn’t pay all that much attention to school politics when I was growing up, but I remember hearing that the city planned to start building new schools when I was twelve, and it still hasn’t happened. You don’t even have a location or the funding.”

“You didn’t bother to ask our permission to build your last set of schools. Why do it this time?” the old witch asked.

I grinned and explained, “Ignoring the fact that it is a private school, there was not a damn thing you could do to stop the construction. They had paid to build the schools, but the developer went bankrupt. While I didn’t have to do it, I honored that previous landowner’s obligation.”

I tried to show them the plans, but the witch, and her cronies, continued to interrupt and be total asses.

“You know, go ahead and kick a gift horse in the balls,” I said as I gave them a predatory smile. “You want to continue to be self-serving jerks swinging around your tiny bit of power over the school system? It will take me less than five minutes to get it all up on social media, with links sent to the local news outlets.”

“What are you going to say, Mr. Jones? That you are throwing a little temper tantrum because we won’t let you have your way or bulldoze over our authority?” one of the nasty women asked.

“Let me see,” I said, looking her in the eyes. “A local nineteen-year-old billionaire philanthropist wants to spend between five-hundred-million and two billion dollars to build new schools with four times their current capacities and gift them to his city, but the school board refused because they don’t like the person offering. Fakebook and Twitslur will go viral. How long will it take someone to find out about the bribery scandal?”

“You can’t threaten us, Mr. Jones. That is not how life works,” the nasty woman told me.

I had to laugh.

“Oh, there is no threat here. I am going to build the schools whether you like it or not. It comes down to whether they are going to private schools or public. I have no problems making private schools and giving every student in the city and county schools a paid scholarship to attend. As far as I’m concerned, this was a courtesy visit to get your input on the facilities, things you would like to see added, and feedback on anything I missed because I am not a school administrator or school board member,” I replied.

I let that hang out there before continuing, “You’re all smart people, so do you think the county or city would deny me building permits at the risk of losing the increased property tax revenues from their recently tripled millage rate? What should get your old goat is that I’m not asking you, the city, or anyone else for any recognition for building the schools. We need them, and you don’t have the resources to do more than rent condemned trailers to put outside the existing schools.”

Just walk out and let them figure things out for themselves.

After slipping into a unisex restroom to scratch Molly’s itch, I took her out to an early dinner.

She was exhausted when we got back to my house. I took her up and tucked her into my bed. Molly came down later to join my parents, Ellen, and siblings as we watched a movie on TV while lounging around in the indoor pool. I told my parents what happened with the school board. They were disgusted.

“I like your idea about building the schools as private schools. You pay the tuition, operating costs, and transportation for every child in the city and county,” mom said. “You already showed them you aren’t blowing smoke up their asses when you upgraded all the middle school classrooms last year.”

Ariba added, “I’m with mom and dad. You can take it further by providing school uniforms, including underwear and shoes. Anyone with a kid that hit puberty would gladly allow you to pick up that tab for their child’s underwear and shoes. If you include breakfast and lunch for all students, you won’t have anyone complaining about it not being a public-run school. Provide dinner for the entire family for those children in need. When there is no school, you make meal kits available for pickup regardless of family income. Why does the town need a school board if there are no schools?”

Dad said, “You can hire the teachers, bus drivers, office staff, cafeteria workers, and janitors, paying them a private school salary. No need for bureaucratic career government-employed administrators sucking up funds that should be going to the schools.”

“Is that something that the city and county would even allow? Won’t there be some Karen out there looking to cause all manners of trouble for not having any school-aged kids in public, government-run schools?” I asked.

“Let them bitch and moan. They can send their children to what remains of the public school system,” mom said. “Without the shackles of government bureaucracy, you can customize the learning to each child instead of needing to lump them together in groups based on test scores. Bump it up to be five times the size you think you already thought you would need, allowing you to have special-needs rooms with well-trained teachers to help students reach their full potential.”

April said, “What about places for babies and little kids like me?”

“She has a point, David. You have the space to build a daycare for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. The schools can have after-school care, including rooms where kids can take naps if needed, for the school-aged children,” mom said. “There are too many elementary and middle school latchkey children. With online predators, it becomes more dangerous than when you were younger.”

Rosie put in her two cents, “Build a youth center next to the schools where the kids can go and hang out until their parents pick them up. If you make it a private school, couldn’t you make part of it a boarding school-like place? I had kids in my class whose parents dropped them off near the school at five-thirty in the morning and picked them up around nine each night. Their parents work almost all the time but have weekends off.”

That may not be a bad idea.

“The idea of a youth center is a good idea, Rosie,” dad said. “I like the idea of providing boarding for some kids, but that would prove problematic in short order. The same people David would be trying to help would be the same ones to complain about it. I would expect that within the first few weeks, at least one set of parents would complain that David is using the dorms to take their children away or something along those lines. Someone always needs to cause a stink, even for something someone is doing to help them and their children. I find that often it is those who most need the help.”

We talked it out for a few hours. In the end, I decided that I wanted to thumb my nose at the school board again. I was going to way oversize the schools. I planned to have three special-needs classrooms for every grade plus “chill” areas for the special-needs kids that needed somewhere to go de-escalate. Each classroom will be co-taught. The school would provide gym clothes, school uniforms, shoes, backpacks, and anything else we decided the kids needed for school, including laptops. Basic underwear will be provided under the auspices of it being a part of the uniform.

We decided to have “street clothes” available for kids that didn’t want to wear their school uniforms to the youth center. There would always be clean uniforms at school for them to change into when they got there.

Ellen was the one that happened to mention that we needed to have unisex bathrooms. There would only be a locking door and toilet, but not enough room for two people in there simultaneously. Sinks would be out in a common area.

We would still have male and female locker rooms with a large shower area for gym classes with individual stalls. There would be enough room to undress and dress, but the kids would likely get their clothes wet unless they were careful. Unisex showers and changing areas would also be available, purposely on the other side of the gym, to give them privacy. Any that chooses to use these changing areas would only have enough time to strip, rinse off quickly, dress, and hurry to make the tardy bell for the next period.

I agree that if we had them close to the other locker rooms, there could be harassment. Still, we can make them a less convenient option for those that just want to skip going to the locker room like everyone else.

Molly came looking for me around two in the morning. She wasn’t horny but wanted to cuddle. We went over the suggestions for the school, and Molly added her input. She helped me design something vastly different for the gym locker rooms and changing areas. Like a bowling alley, the kids would go to one of three areas and give the person their school shoes and socks. They would get a key and correctly sized exercise clothes for the day’s activities when coming to gym class. Once changed, they would give the person their clothes and keys to get their gym shoes and socks.

After their gym class, they would turn in their gym shoes and socks to get a towel, key, clean underwear, and school uniform. Turning in the towel and key got them their school shoes and socks back. The showers would only have five minutes of hot water. They could get another two minutes, but only with cold water. In total, they had the room for ten minutes. After that time, the room number would be announced as exceeding their time and have a red light over the door. The only exception was when girls were having their period. They got two additional minutes.

Each shower area had a waterproof storage area to put their school uniforms and other things to keep them from getting wet.

There would be enough rooms to allow twice the total number of kids in gym class to shower simultaneously, but only a third would get keys at one time. First come, first serve, and no late passes for anyone. We designed it so that there was one block on the boy’s side of the gym and another on the girl’s side. The third block was in the middle. Kids could use either side they wanted, but they had to use that side to change for class and shower afterward.

Molly suggested the middle area get two minutes less than the other two to benefit those who changed and showered quickly.

If the class ran long for some reason, more keys would get handed out.

The showers all turned to only cold water five minutes before the end of the period. Two minutes before the bell, they would turn off. Like the self-cleaning toilets, the shower areas would have a “sanitizing” cycle followed by some cycle that would dry the stall and changing area. It would only get triggered when someone returned the key after someone showered.

When the key gets inserted, it turns on the camera to show the empty area. The monitor for that area turns off when the key gets removed. That is the only way the camera is enabled. It can’t be bypassed without taking the whole system offline and tearing apart the panel.

It doesn’t affect the three other cameras connected to the encrypted DVRs that record twenty-four hours a day. The machine’s AI will look for anomalies such as bruises or two kids together in the same stall. Paula will ensure that we have full legal justification and oversight.

We redid all the plans, and they would be waiting for pickup at nine in the morning. Molly had me send digital copies to the same people she sent plans to for permits’ approval. They will have them before we come by with the paper copies to get the physical plan signoff. That is merely a formality that made people get the warm fuzzies.

The school board will get something else warm, squishy, and not the least bit pleasant smelling.

Careful planning and coordination prepared us to walk into the impromptu school board meeting. It seems they were having a catered lunch today and weren’t about to give up a free meal. None of them questioned who was providing that meal or why.

“Great! Everyone is already here. You have five minutes before they begin serving lunch. It looks like I’m the pre-meal entertainment,” I told them. “After our meeting yesterday, I spoke with some trusted advisers about the situation and decided not to pursue my plans to build any new public schools in the city. Instead, I will construct a state-of-the-art private school complex for K through twelfth grades, a preschool, and childcare for three-month-olds through twelves-years-old. Children thirteen and older are free to use the youth center, which will be open between five AM and nine PM Monday through Friday.”

The old head witch said, “So why are you bothering us?”

“Glad that you asked,” I replied. “I will make the school board irrelevant because of your arrogance and complete ineptitude to do your jobs. All children attending the city’s public schools will be given fully paid scholarships to my private schools. It includes uniforms, meals, transportation, and any other damn thing my school administrators feel the kids need. I will ensure every child has breakfast and lunch each school day. I don’t care if their parents make millions of dollars a year. The children will have dinner provided for their entire family each school day. On non-school days, those families in need will have breakfast, lunch, and dinner delivered to their homes. Those who do not meet the financial needs criteria can request and pick up meal kits. I will ensure that each family member’s nutritional and dietary requirements are met.”

“There is no such thing as a free lunch, Mr. Jones,” one of the school board head’s cronies said.

I laughed and said, “Duh! I know that! I’m paying for it.”