Category Archives: city council

city council, weather

The Ghost of the Past

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I was back in my old stomping grounds tonight, appearing before the city council on behalf of my new job. It would give all the habitat-for-humanity guessers false hope if they knew that much of the time was spent on the intricacies and failings of the current zoning code in the city.

You’d have been proud of me. I kept my presentation short and to the point. (Especially since the water engineers in front of me were scheduled for a 35 minute talk and it ran to over 100 minutes – not that I was counting or anything. {*grin})

I did get a chance to give the new council and city manager a hard time. At the entry to the council chambers is a rogue’s gallery of photos of the council and the mayor, etc. I noted that according to the rogue’s gallery, I was still the mayor as it was still my picture hanging there. That got a couple of mutters of “Omigosh, we haven’t changed that yet!” out of the staff. That is what happens when you are mayor for three terms – they forget how to handle the transitions. {*grin/2*}

After that, I stopped by mom’s on the way home to pick up a bunch of stuff from her freezer. I’d promised her I’d do so. That way she’d have space to clean one of her freezers. More to get things organized than cleaned – at least so it seems to me. In any case, my solo freezer is now full to the brim with all the additional stuff. I have even begun to suspect that there is creature living on the bottom of my freezer. It has been that long since I’ve seen the bottom. Probably won’t until summer gets here and then it is time to reload.

Today was wonderful since the temperature finally got above freezing for the first time in a bit and some of the snow started to melt. I keep my fingers crossed in hope that it will finally get rid of the sheets of glare ice covering the roads and parking lots. It would be nice to have that cleared away before the next snow storm wonders in. We’ll have to see. I still don’t think it will be warm on Christmas Day, but a man can hope.

The next hint for the job guessers: I was a founding board member of the organization and think I have actually mentioned it here on the blog once or twice.

city council, Tuesday

Tuesday Meanderings

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Tonight was a city council work session on the library project. We invited all the new council members who will be getting sworn in next Tuesday to join us behind the council bench for the presentation by the architect. We might have postponed the meeting until the newbies were sworn in and seated, but we need to send the project out for bid around Thanksgiving – which is less that two weeks away. We’re adding about 5,000 square feet to our existing 11,000 square foot library and making over the interior at the same time. I think it was important for all the council members to understand what the project is and will cost (~$3.2 million), even if we are the ones that got all the money gathered up and said go for it.

It was probably good to have had the meeting for other reasons as well. I needed to sign off on an FAA application for the airport runway extension project so we could get it sent in. We’ve only been working at getting all the OKs needed for 4 years now. But if all goes according to plan, we should see ~$4 million from the FAA for us to match with ~$100,000. I could only wish that everything worked that way!

In any case, all us lame ducks were told to be there next week since we need to open the meeting and then set the swearing in process in motion for the newbies. In addition we are to get a surprise. My guess is either a service plaque or maybe a cake party. What’s your guess?

It is going to seem strange in the morning not to mosey down to the radio station for my Mayoral Midweek show. Although it will be kind of nice to sleep that extra hour. I still have a mayor related meeting at 10am and then have to journey over to city hall to sign a set of documents for the notaries. So far as I can see, that will be the last duty other than opening next weeks meeting. I still haven’t really decided how I feel about the end of my (term limited) three terms as mayor. I think that in and of itself says that it is time for me to go.

Time to watch a late night movie tonight since I don’t have to be radio ready in the morning.

city council, mayor, thoughtful tuesday

The End of the Road

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Tonight was my last regularly scheduled city council meeting as mayor. There is a special meeting on Thursday and a work session on next Tuesday and then I am done. The new mayor and council will be sworn in at the meeting on the 24th. Of course I found out tonight that the new council wants me to be there on the 24th – probably to give me my “Thanks for your service” plaque.

It has been and is amusing the way people seek you out just to say “hi, mayor” one last time at this stage of the game. I went to the store at noon today to do some grocery shopping and thought I was never going to get through the store. All the “hi mayor” and the stopping and visiting made the path through the store seem endless. I have been surprised by the number of people that have come up to me and thanked me for doing a great job. Many of them proclaim me to be the best mayor we have ever had. (I wonder if that isn’t the case with any departing official – after all, what are they going to do? Walk up to you and exorcise you from top to bottom and then proclaim you were the worst mayor in history?) It does make me wonder what it will be like when I am well and truly gone from office.

The council meeting tonight was short and sweet. Mostly because of a short agenda with only a brief executive session to slow things down. One of the representatives from the press thanked us loudly for making it a short meeting. (That is because she is a reporter for the weekly paper which is published overnight for Wednesday delivery. Her Tuesday nights run well into Wednesday morning every week.)

One of the traditions we have is to allow outgoing council members five minutes to soliloquize on any topic they wish at their last regular meeting. I kept mine semi-short and to the point:

  • Thank you to the citizens of the city and surrounding area for being so supportive and willing to work to accomplish so much.
  • Thank you to the employees of the city because they embraced our emphasis on customer service and did the real work.
  • Thank you to my fellow city council members. I was fortunate to have essentially the same council for all three terms as mayor. That allowed us to work together to accomplish many things, including long term goals that might not otherwise have beem possible.
  • Thank you to the city manager for being so easy to work with and so capable. And because at every meeting over the years he has turned to me and whispered that he forgot his pen and could he borrow mine, I hereby give him my old pen that I always lent to him. (It is a measure of a good manager that through all three terms as mayor he always gave it back after borrowing it. {*grin*})
  • Thank you to Frank and Gloria Walsh and the Walsh Family for all that they have done and given to the city and the community. Their presence and gifts to the community have made my job that much easier.
  • A very heartfelt thank you to my wife and son for their support. The time when the city council meeting was on my birthday and they brought cake so we could still celebrate was very special.
  • Finally, I want to wish all the best to the new council and mayor. I hope they can accomplish as much in the coming years as we have in the past.

I figure that is a pretty good way to say it all.

Time to get going, the early morning trek down to the radio station has to happen one more time.