Barre’s got problems.

At last week’s gubernatorial press conference, flood recovery czar Doug Farnham threw out a shocking statistic: Barre suffered two and a half times as much damage in the July flood than any other community in Vermont. That’s on top of its perpetually troubled Main Street and its usual struggles with drugs and crime.

Even so, a handful of conservative troublemakers forced the city council to spend way too much time deciding the fate of the Wheelock Building, pictured above. The matter was finally settled this week, as council approved the building’s sale to the operators of East Montpelier’s Fox Market, which plans to open a second location in the building.

The Fox, for those unfamiliar, is a remarkable success story. Co-owners Doni Cain and Liv Dunton took a severely rundown building near the corner of US-2 and Route 14, where no one had managed to sustain a business for years, and turned it into a specialty food store and gathering place for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.

And there’s the rub, I suspect. That handful of conservatives tried to hide their prejudice behind ludicrous procedural objections, but c’mon. It was obvious that they would rather have let the building go empty than risk seeing a rainbow flag on Main Street.

When, in fact, they ought to be throwing a damn parade for any entrepreneur willing to invest in Barre’s downtown.

The Wheelock Building was the longtime home of the Barre Senior Center. When the city put it up for sale, it got two bids. One was from a nonprofit that offered $50,000 with the intent of turning the building over to the Barre Partnership. Fox Market LLC offered more than twice as much, and its occupancy would return the building to the tax rolls, not to mention bringing a proven business to Main Street.

Seems like a no-brainer, but Barre’s politics are weird. City Council is divided right down the middle, with progressive Democrats on one side and conservative Republicans on the other. It was the latter, plus their allies, who raised objections. Their first effort was a petition drive aimed at forcing a citywide vote on the deal, but they failed to get enough signatures. The July flood forced more delays. Those behind the failed petition tried again to force a citywide vote, but got nowhere.

In the end, only one councilor voted against the sale. Michael Boutin last appeared in these precincts for opposing the display of a Black Lives Matter flag.

The long-delayed Wheelock deal is a microcosm of what can happen when dead-end ideology gets in the way of sound decision-making, as it has often done on city councils, selectboards and school boards in Vermont and across the country. Barre got to the right decision in the end, but it shouldn’t have taken anywhere near this much time.