Topics

Some Cabot stories get asked about again and again. Each of these pages tells one of them the same way: the story itself, with dates; what critics and residents said, including the Facebook group conversation paraphrased as themes; and what the record actually shows — including the parts nobody has documented, which are named as gaps rather than filled in.

Olive Garden & the Park That Hasn't Happened — A restaurant, a promised mountain-bike park, a sewer line the city ran anyway, and a refund fight over ratepayer money.
Buckman Brewhouse — The brewery in the old downtown fire station: two tie-break votes, a permit fight, and lease figures that do not agree across sources.
Water & Sewer Rate Increases — How rate charts from 2001 and 2005 gave way to the increases of 2025–2026, what drove them, and what residents said.
Why Doug Warner Resigned — The 2020 council resignation, in Warner's own stated reasons, and the runoff coda most people forget.
Criticism of Mayor Kincade — The recurring criticisms of Mayor Ken Kincade's tenure — debt, growth, Flock, transparency — paired with his answers and what the record shows.
What Eddie Joe Williams Is Running On — His 2026 platform — traffic, debt, jobs, transparency — the record he points to, and the scrutiny his campaign has drawn.
The Flock Camera Fight — Nine plate-reader cameras ran for four years with almost no debate, then became the city's biggest argument: the suspension, the 2–3–3 vote, and the Facebook discourse that drove it.
The Crypto Mine and Act 314 — A crypto mine in the county, a council that extended its rules to reach it at its senator's urging — and the state law, passed with his vote five weeks later, that took the authority away.
Growth, Traffic, and the Interchanges — Cabot's defining grievance: the $32M north interchange, the $53.9M Hwy. 5 rebuild, who actually owns which roads, and what the Facebook groups say about all of it.
The Lyon College Deal: A Veterinary School for Cabot — The biggest development deal in city history — a land sale, a 25-year lease-and-sublease, a developer swap nobody explained, and a discourse that never happened.
The Junior High North Fire of 2006 — Registration day, August 10, 2006: one of the district's newest schools burned to the ground. The response, the $12.1 million settlement, the three-year rebuild — and the anniversary nobody marks.
What the Bond Money Built — Two decades of a one-cent sales tax and what it bought: Game Time, the fiber network, the Justice Center, the sirens — the inventory, the separate money pots, and the debt argument at the center of the 2026 race.
The Tornado of March 29, 1976 — An F3 tornado leveled downtown on a Monday afternoon in 1976, killing five. The rebuilding on the rubble, the festival born from it, and the siren argument Cabot is still having fifty years later.
The City That Built Its Own Internet — Fed up with the cable monopoly, Cabot built its own fiber network as a public utility and leased it to an electric co-op subsidiary — the most popular item in the 2021 bond package, and the least examined since.
First Street: The Railroad Town the Tornado Took — The Cabot that grew up around the railroad stop — Old Austin left behind, cotton wagons and general stores, First Street along the tracks — and the downtown that stood there until one Monday afternoon in 1976.
The Amphitheater Fight of 2026 — A $50,000 study for a possible $10–15 million amphitheater, one of the year's largest Facebook threads, and a public correction three days later — a fight about money pots, and about how Cabot finds out what its government is doing.
Old Austin: The Town the Railroad Left Behind — The Butterfield stop the railroad passed by: Austin's antebellum town, Camp Nelson's 1,500 dead and their disputed move, the Sears House, and the college that almost came in 1886.
The Therapy Pool: The Summer Cabot Organized for a Repair — A 20-year-old dehumidifier died in January 2026 and the therapy pool sat closed for eight months — until residents organized, three pots of money split a $129,825 repair, and the council voted unanimously.