For the Title
Weekly Update 1/8/2023 to 1/14/2023 #155
Someone recently told me I just ran for office for the title. Before I share why I ran for office, let me share a glimpse into my week serving as the mayor of the best smalltown in America.
This week, we continued the work of transforming all of our departments into dementia-friendly departments. We had several training sessions for all of our employees to have a chance to learn more about dementia and how it could affect their interactions with the public. We have one more training session coming up, and then we should have each department certified dementia friendly. Thank you to each of our team members who have already completed the training, and for the others, you only have one session left to get it completed.
Back in March of 2021, I proposed the Curb Appeal Program. Fast forward and our small-scale community improvement program has proven itself to be a success. After an award from Accelerate Indiana Municipalities, I presented to the Mayor’s Institute and have had many one-on-one conversations about it. I bring it up this week because we have now had a sit down with Indiana’s second largest community so they could learn more along their road to implementing something similar. I love chances like this to share what has worked for us and even more, chances to hear their thoughts to possibly improve our program along the way. They shared with us that they had been looking for something like this for several months then suddenly at the Ideas Summit they received a “gift from heaven” during the awards ceremony. The other comment that caught me off guard was when they thanked me for being so “bold and forward-thinking on how to tackle neighborhood improvements.”
This week I had a chance to sit down with two different developers and talk Seymour. I had a chance to share what we see as potential opportunities and encourage them to add another project to their list. While I know that major projects are not overnight, I couldn’t help but feel encouraged as I planted thoughts about residential, commercial, and industrial possibilities got some positive feedback about how they enjoyed working with our departments on past projects. I am already sensing 2023 will be a year of leg work getting us primed for the next big wave.
Back to that opening thought and how they couldn’t be farther from the truth. For me, it has never been about the title. I have always wanted to make a difference, not just in one segment of our community, but in several. I have wanted to see the fruits of our labors make a change for all of us, not just a select few. The section about getting our team trained to be dementia friendly is so we can serve our citizens better. It also has a secondary piece about opening up a dialog on mental health as a whole by talking about one part of that puzzle. The next section about curb appeal is a chance to help those who want to improve their homes. We all know that improvements are contagious and one leads to two and now we are seeing our efforts not just help Seymour, but in several cities around the state and even as far away as Iowa. Even in the last section, we don’t just talk about how to serve the upper crust of our population. We talk about projects that have the potential to serve across the board. I have always been and still am here to serve our community from top to bottom. No neighborhood and no neighbor are excluded in my thoughts. Today, I will leave you with a Tim Tebow quote because I feel like it sums up my thoughts on how I serve our community; "We have to humble ourselves and the way you do that is by serving other people."