Aggrieved officials of a mountain hamlet in southern Germany accuse the Bavarian government of leaving them out in the cold and want to join Austria instead.I hope they have better luck than Huntington, Oregon. Back in the 1980s (I forget the year), city leaders in Huntington made a big push to secede from Baker County and join up with Malheur County. Being right on the border, it wouldn't have required much in the way of moving the county lines. And they had some legitimate grievances - ambulance services, police protection, etc., all took quite a while to get to their remote location. They felt slighted, even somewhat abused. So they fluffed their feathers and said they wanted to leave.
Residents of the tiny town of Kiefersfelden in the Bavarian Alps have long been driving across the border to fill up in Austria. What's more, their train connections are almost completely supplied by the Austrian national rail network and soon they'll only be able to receive television programs from the neighboring country as well.
"Why shouldn't we completely belong to Austria then?" Werner Schroller, head of the spa in the tiny vacation hamlet, told German news agency dpa.
The town in the south of Germany feels forsaken by the Bavarian state. So with a fest, called "Welcome to Austria," to be held on April 1, the city wants to call attention to this issue...
But. Poor Huntington. Malheur County officials patiently explained that, given Huntington's size and remoteness, and the realities of the budget and the size of the sheriff's department, that they weren't in any position to provide any better services. In fact, they might not be able to match the services currently being provided by Baker County.
Such a deal. They'd meant to make a point, and wound up looking a bit silly. It was all a bit sad, really.
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