SATIRE. Fiction. The program, figures and municipality below are invented.
Officials at a local municipality launched a modest conservation pilot this spring intended to support a small, stable population. By July the population had doubled. By August it had done something officials described, carefully, as 'exceeding projections.'
The program's budget line grew accordingly, though the monthly figure remained reassuringly small, which is the traditional shape of these things.
Asked whether the pilot might conclude, a spokesperson for the Department of Extremely Normal Cameras explained that the agreement renews automatically unless someone objects, and that nobody has objected, because the item renews at 9:40 p.m.