Nearest You
Weekly Update #242 9/8/2024 to 9/14/2024
This week, I had a moment where it occurred to me that everyone in the building was working on the same objective, and they were all in totally different ways. Before that though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
At the most recent council meeting, the council passed on first reading the addition of two 4-way stops here: one at 4th and Ewing Street, the other at Poplar and Oak Street. Both of these will return for a second and final reading September 23rd. They also voted to withdraw a stop sign recommendation at Chestnut and Bruce Street. The last of the stop sign related votes was to clean up the ordinance book and remove the 4-way at 4th and O’Brien Street when it opens up as a roundabout. All in all, the council cleared a few committee items from the list over the course of the meeting.
On September 11, I had a chance to attend a Marine Corps Re-enlistment for Gunnery Sergeant Kevin Dooling. He chose to hold his ceremony at the Mellencamp Mural here in Seymour. For the last few years, he has been stationed as a recruiter in Columbus, and most of the new Marines he helped sign up are from Seymour. When asked why he chose Seymour for his re-enlistment ceremony, he had this to say, “When I first came to southern Indiana in 2021, I have always felt like Seymour was my home away from home. The residents of Seymour have continued to welcome me into their homes, and lives, and allowed me to positively impact the community. The contribution this town has made to the Marine Corps over these last three years has been tremendous, and I felt it necessary to re-enlist in a town that has continued to demonstrate an immense amount of patriotism, and support for the Marine Corps.” Sir, thank you for your service to our country and thank you for the chance to get to know you during your time in our area.
Meals on Wheels used a new asset we have here at City Hall this week to make their planning easier. The new asset is our map wall in the Miles Conference Room. They stopped by to get a map to help with the work they had to do and were shown the new conference room wall. They asked if they could use the conference room the next day. The next day, they worked through their route design with the help of the Seymour map on the wall, and I believe found the best options for the future. Thank you, ladies, for letting us help, and I am glad the large map helped make the process easier.
Back to that opening thought with a building full of people doing the same thing in different ways. One morning, I was in the free weights section of the gym and it got me thinking. First, those in the free weights all had some exercise they were performing with barbells and dumbells. Then move over to the group fitness area where several were working their way through what looked like a tough workout. Jump up to the cardio area and you have walkers, runners, bikers, and beyond all working on making that heart stronger. Each person had made time to get to the gym that day. Several of them I see on a regular basis when I make time to get there. The group as a whole though, for various reasons, are all there working on the same thing: Themselves! It might be losing weight that motivates them. Maybe it is to be stronger. Toning up, looking better, living longer, or whatever their reason, they all make time to get there and work on themselves. This week, we saw something similar as teams came together for the Thousand Ten Project. Many people join together and do many different items in many different ways all doing the same thing: Helping their fellow man. I will leave you with a quote from Mother Teresa, "Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."