Broadway Auto purchases Van Boxtel Column By Tom Murphy Broadway Automotive, a fixture in Brown County for more than 90 years, has purchased Van Boxtel Ford Jeep of Green Bay. At press time, it was learned that the sale should be completed late this month or in early November. Staffs of both automobile dealerships were informed of the sale at midweek. The Cuene family of De Pere has been involved with Broadway since 1919. Ed Van Boxtel acquired the Ford agency about 40 years ago from members of the Ed and Joe Van Drisse families. THANKS All summer long - when it finally arrived in this neck of the woods - through a glorious September and into this colorful October, motorists have benefitted from the largesse of small groups of gardeners. On Riverside Drive and South Webster Avenue in Allouez and the far end of East Mason Street, volunteers planted and nurtured eclectic plats in boulevard medians. For Riverside and most of South Webster it was the Allouez Beautifcation Committee's responsibility. Just over the line on Webster in De Pere it was the Garden Club Des Peres. On East Mason, it was the East Mason Beautification Committee. This group added attractive round plats at Mason and Main to the median plantings further east. All performed admirably, either in person or through fund-raising to underwrite plantings, back-bending weedings and waterings. Early this month the beds were resplendent with rich, mixed autumn hues: magenta, burnt sienna, copper, golden wheat, buttery caramel and shimmering brown sugar. Some of the larger plantings neared six feet. They were a coloful and symmetrical offset to the red, white, purple and blue ground cover varieties. But in solid mixed metaphor fashion, there was a fly in the ointment. On Riverside Drive in Allouez, the beautiful beds were blighted by huge ugly weeds in the all-concrete medians immediately north and south of the Highway 172 overpass. More than a few of the obnoxious (were they noxious, too?) weeds were three feet high. A ruler might have found some pushing 48 inches. These medians are not included in ABC's efforts. Since the roadway carries Highway 57, it is the state's responsibility. Most often, the State Highway Department district authorizes the appropriate municipality and/or county to maintain these stretches. Reimbursement is made. We don't know what happened on either side of Highway 172. But someone dropped the ball and the weeds grew uninhibited to heights that make Jack In The Beanstalk look like a piker. Hey, guys, whomever you are: a dab or two of Roundup would have corrected the problem. Eyesores would have been prevented and volunteer efforts preserved. They deserve better. So, too, taxpayers. WHAT IN THE WORLD? Talking of taxpayers, what in the world was Gov. Jim Doyle trying to say during his recent comments on likely increases in "fees" for vehicle registration, hunting and fishing? "The crucial thing about a fee," Doyle said, "is that it not be a disguised tax increase. A fee is actually supposed to support the cost of a service." We think he meant that if you hunt and fish, you pay for it and nothing else. Or if you drive, you pay for the privilege of a floorboard, steering wheel and the right to buy heavily taxed (the state's share is 29.1 cents per gallon) fuel. In reality, we think, Doyle's logic is a bit convoluted. There's no way in hades that residents' $17 annual fishing license fee covers the state's cost of providing the recreation. Nor does anyone believe the $55 automobile (trucks are separate registration fee, raised from $45 just 16 months ago, buys all the asphalt and concrete and steel for our roads. We could go on - and so could you. Let it stand that even Gertrude Stein of rose fame would agree that a tax is a tax is a tax. Curbside: A 20-bed community based residential facility will be built on School Creek Trail in Luxemburg this fall. The property was purchased Friday by Sharon and Wayne DePeau and brokered by Mary Rubens. The site is on the fast-growing west end of the village, just off Highway 54...In last week's piece on St. Vincent Hospital and the Astor Neighborhood, we erred saying the ramp on South Van Buren Street was proposed 10 years ago. The idea first was floated some 20 months ago. The hospital corridor location was agreed on 30 years ago. Thanks to Ald. Tony Theisen. More to come on this.