Continually
Weekly Update 10/30 to 11/5 #145
"Congratulations", "tell me more", “how did you do it", "can you send me information" were all things said after a luncheon this week. Before I share what the topic was though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best smalltown in America.
Before heading off to the Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) Ideas Summit 2022, I had several meetings to keep the front end of the week full. Things like getting the deed signed and delivered for the new Tuskegee Airmen statues at the Airport are now wrapped up. If you haven’t seen the new statues go check them out near the terminal building on A Avenue. Follow that up with sitting down with potential new developers to discuss a piece of property and what we as a city see it becoming in the future. While we never know what comes from meetings like this, we do know that if Seymour will continue to prosper it will be because of work like this. Thank you to the city team for all their hard work on so many areas that many never know about.
Ideas Summit is put together by AIM to help Indiana communities connect and trade ideas for the future. This year was my fourth time attending. Back in 2018, I walked across the stage as I was honored for completing the Certified Municipal Official program and becoming a CMO. Every time I have gone I come back with another set of new ideas and a list of communities that have already implemented them to contact with questions. Two times now I have been given the chance to join the list of speakers about topics related to planning. I have to mention the best part of the conference is the hallway conversations. There you get a chance to discuss ideas shared from sessions and see old friends from around the state who are doing the same thing as yourself (trying to make our communities the best they can be). The conversations are much less formal than the learning sessions and often turn into extended conversations after the conference ends.
The previous paragraph gets me back to the opening thought. This year at Ideas Summit, the Seymour city team was honored with two awards for work we had done over the last year. We received recognition for our work on Pollinator Gardens located in several areas of the community. The gardens, along with taking the National Wildlife Federation's Mayor's Monarch Pledge helped us win the Green Project of the Year. This award was a great accomplishment for the team and could have been enough to be happy with our efforts, but that was not the only trip to the stage this year. In 2021, we started the Curb Appeal Program to try to boost our community. I would love to take all the credit for this program, but I was just the starter of the idea. It took the council to approve my idea. Then I had help from staff to get the application nailed down so people knew how to apply and what the guidelines were. Then it moved into the hands of Planning and Zoning to oversee the program. Since its start, we have seen a return of over eight times the investment that has generated over $120,000. Being recognized with the Program Innovation Award sparked hallway conversations that I have no doubt will continue for months to come. I have been asked to speak on the topic at the Mayor’s Institute in December and had many questions like I opened with today of other cities wanting to learn more. I believe it is nice to be the teacher from time to time, but as Steve Jobs said, "Learn continually - there's always 'one more thing' to learn!" I have already picked up a few things on topics that I want to improve for our community as I shared about our program.