Not a Sofa
Weekly Update 12/24/2023 to 12/30/2023 #205
In my office I have a drawing from decades ago portraying a vastly different future block of downtown Seymour. Before I share my thoughts on it though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This past week, we had nine people be sworn in to serve our community. Eight of them as elected officials for the next four years. The one that I would like to focus on, however, is being sworn in for a career with the Seymour Police Department. Friday, Ethan Chandler became the newest recruit to join SPD. He has many hours of training over the next year before he can work the street alone, but he has now sworn the oath to serve and protect our community. In the future, he will head off to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. He will be assigned a Field Training Officer, where he will receive more training alongside an experienced officer. After several more pieces of training to go with his annual training, he will take to the streets with his assigned squad when he is duly trained and ready.
This week was also the final meeting of the Board of Works for 2023. Jim Potts has served on BOW since the start of 2020 and worked alongside Dave Earley and myself through a pandemic, contract negotiations, and so many other items in the last four years. I can’t thank him enough for accepting my offer to serve on BOW because he has been wonderful to work with over the years. His care for our community showed often as he would consider the various topics presented to us. Thank you, Jim, it is very much appreciated, and I know Katie will like you having a little less restrictive schedule in the future.
Twice a year the Department of Public Works has back to back double days for trash and recycling. They release information about them via social media, a note on sewer bills, and the sign at the corner of Tipton and O’Brien street. On any of the other regular double days we get calls about missed cans at a rate of about 1%. For some reason though, on back to back double days, we get calls around 3%. How else can we share the information so that you and your neighbors know for 2024 that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we will pick up Wednesday and Thursday trash and recycling? The Monday after will be Friday and Monday pick up. Then the week of Christmas, we will pick up Monday and Tuesday on Monday and Wednesday and Thursday on Thursday. Maybe if you mark your calendar now you can help us tell your friends and neighbors.
Time to jump back to that opening paragraph and the drawing in my office. In the 1980s, an area businessman had artist renderings created showing an area of downtown with covered parking and a second floor carousel. Several existing buildings would have been connected in the process. For its time it was a really interesting concept that could have changed the path of downtown. In hindsight it is easy to see the positives that might have come from it. What has been lost over the years, though, is why it didn’t become a reality. Was it personality conflicts between stakeholders? Could it have been securing the capital needed to undertake such a major project? While those left from the era are getting fewer and fewer, we may never know all the sides to the story to pinpoint it. I keep the drawing out, though, to remind me that not every project will make it to reality and that there are many reasons why. When we can get everyone headed in the same direction, though, more might make it to construction for future generations to enjoy. Today, I will leave you headed into the new year with a quote from UK Prime Minister Harold MacMilan, "Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa."