Cat 5s and False Summits
Weekly Update 8/27/2023 to 9/2/2023 #188
Cat 5s and false summits are on my mind this morning as I sit down to write this week’s update. If you are unsure of what I am referencing, stick around to the end to see where this column heads. Before that though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week, community organizations came together to host International Overdose Awareness Night at Crossroads Park. I can remember when this event was held downtown with just a handful of people in attendance, and to see it now, with hundreds of people and more services, is a great feeling. We have to continue to have conversations about Substance Use Disorder to help break down the stigma and help area residents who are using realize recovery is possible. To everyone involved in hosting this event thank you for all your efforts.
This week also saw one of our best attended Curbside Chats. Parks Director Stacy Findley and Clerk-Treasurer Darrin Boas joined me at Gaiser Park to answer residents' questions and hear their concerns. We do this once a month during the warmer months to allow residents a more casual setting to bring their thoughts to Seymour officials. If you have missed the first five chats for 2023, go ahead and mark your calendar for September 28th at the Community Center where I will be joined by a representative from Seymour Fire Department and City Attorney Chris Engleking.
This week, I continued working on my goal of meeting with 52 developers in 2023. This meeting was focused on commercial and multifamily/ residential. It is always a more interesting meeting when you realize you have mutual friends from years back. Like each one of the dozens of meetings before this one, it will be interesting to see what parts get explored and grow into something new for our community in the years to come. Regardless though, I can’t help but feel like it is good for our community to be on the minds of so many potential investors from around the region.
In the world of cycling there is a rating system for climbs. To be rated they have to be at least 500 meters in length with an average grade of three percent. Cat 5 climbs are the easiest of the rated climbs and Jackson County has a few dotting our landscape. Over the years, my trusty singlespeed and I have climbed most of them. What each one seems to have in common, though, is a false summit. A false summit is that spot where you think you have made it to the top and suddenly realize you still have a ways to go before you reach the top. That moment can be tough mentally especially on a single speed bicycle because you thought it was over and you would get to recover as you coast down the other side. Serving as mayor is a little different, though, because you come to expect the false summits. I expect to have to keep working away to get to the finish line. Even when a project is coming to a conclusion, you are already working away on the next one because a city is either moving forward or it is moving backwards. We don’t get to stand still because when we do we start to fall behind. Most will never realize how many projects we are working on at any given time because it is usually those behind-the-scenes moments that keep us going. Today, in memory of Jimmy Buffett, I will leave you with his words, "Only time will tell if it was time well-spent.”