Due to Weather
Weekly Update 6/25/2023 to 7/1/2023 #179
Then the storms changed the day's plans. Before I explain though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best smalltown in America.
I spent several hours this week with Seymour Police Department as they went through various trainings. Monday, I joined in for a little while as they worked on Emergency Vehicle Operations and ran the course as a passenger and a driver. While the hours spent on the course can never prevent everything, it does help prepare our new officers and refresh our more experienced ones on what their particular cars can do. The next day, I joined a different group of trainers for part of firearms training. Here our new officers had a chance to improve their skills and qualify. This also gave our other sworn officers their monthly time on the range to keep those skills honed in the unfortunate event that they would need them. The last training I was able to participate in was a part of the Defensive Tactics with another group of trainers. Even with my short visit I was able to work up a good sweat and learn some about how officers protect themselves in a hand-to-hand situation. I know each year our officers go through hundreds of hours of training, but to get a chance to see so much in one week was a new experience for me. Thank you to all the trainers in their different skills that they are able to work with our officers and officers from around the region. They really are making not just Seymour a better place to live and work but this area as a whole.
The most recent council meeting had a couple of agenda items that related to abatements. The first was a transfer of an existing abatement to a new owner. This transfer doesn’t give the new owner any extra time, but does allow them to receive the benefits for the remainder of the original abatement. The second was for a four-million-dollar expansion. Both of these were on real property which is the building or improvements. When it comes to abatements I prefer these over the personal property because the building will be there for decades to come. This particular improvement will save the new business between $500k-$600k over the next ten years total and we will still collect over $100k in property taxes for the years after year nine and until the building is torn down decades later. This company is also adding nine jobs with an above-average wage that will generate other dollars being invested in our community as those employees go about their days in Seymour.
After working for months heading up the committee to hold the first Disc Dash for Seymour Noon Lions, you could see the disappointment on Saturday morning when the decision to postpone due to weather was reached. The twenty-something-year-old young man who put in so much work to get the event to this day was scrambling to find ways to make it happen, but the thunder and lightning didn’t allow it. After a committee meeting, it was decided to move a month back when the park was available again and hold it on August 5. Hunter Nolan has done a wonderful job chairing this event and shows that our communities do have bright futures because of young people like him who are growing and learning how to be the leaders of tomorrow. While the original day didn’t turn out the way we had hoped it would, it does give us a chance to help this young man give back to our community by picking up a sponsorship for just $100 or come out and participate for $25. Just give me a shout if you want more details and I will be glad to connect you with Hunter. Today, I want to leave you with a George S. Patton quote that I keep in mind when working with people, especially our younger community members like Hunter, and watched him use the same as he led this project. "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."