Between the Ears
Weekly Update #235 7/21/2024 to 7/27/2024
Last week, I left you with a quote from General James Mattis about the importance of thinking. Keep that in mind as I share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Recently, the Seymour Redevelopment Commission and the Seymour Common Council supported our work on applying for Owner Occupied Rehab from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. I believe this is Seymour’s sixth time applying for the OOR grant with our most recent being in 2022. In 2022 we were able to help 23 homeowners do updates to their roofs, water heaters, heating and cooling systems, and more. The design of the program is to help homeowners stay in their homes longer with assistance on needed repairs. We won’t know if we have been awarded the grant until September, but we have definitely put forward a good application with a little extra match provided by the RDC and the support of the Common Council. Check the City Hall social media to learn more. Thank you to everyone involved for all the work on the front end, and I look forward to reading our results in a few months.
Seymour Police Department has one officer who will graduate from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in mid August. Sometime last year the pension board met to recommend his addition to the department and the pension program. This week, the pension board met for the same purpose with another new hire in the near future. He will spend a considerable amount of time being trained just as officers have done before him. From pre-basic to the ILEA Academy and then onto being trained by his field training officer until he is found proficient enough to start working the streets of Seymour by himself. Even after a new officer has finished several thousands of hours of training they are still required to continue their training annually on many mandatory topics and some interests of their own. Thank you to everyone at SPD for all you do in our community.
The last couple paragraphs have shown how General Mattis was correct when he said, "The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears." From knowing the grading system to help improve our grant applications for a better chance of being awarded to organizing the amount of training new officers will undergo, we must always be thinking. This past week, we also took a look at the first draft of the 2025 budget. It was reviewed multiple times throughout the week to make sure what we bring forward to Common Council in a few months is sustainable in the future and that we are able to support our team members with the training, equipment, and wages they deserve. It is never easy to find the balance as some tough decisions are always required in the end. Another issue this week was to establish a trust for the transfer station project. Meeting both the requirements of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the needs of the city takes some time to get everything in place. As we step closer to cost savings I can say it has not been an easy task, but it will be worth it in the long run. With General Mattis’ quote in mind, I encourage everyone to learn as much as you can and keep improving those six inches between your ears every chance you get.