See Differently
Weekly Update #217 3/17/2024 to 3/23/2024
Several years ago, before I started serving as mayor, I was told that it wouldn’t take long before I started to see places differently. Before I finish this thought, I will share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week, Seymour hosted a potential new company looking to invest in our area. While they were in town for several hours this week, my portion was less than an hour as we chatted about our community and why Seymour is an amazing place to live and work. While they have been exploring the option to locate here for several months now, this was our first chance to meet face to face. Good work to all the resources that took time to meet with them. Thank you to the team from the company for sitting down with us, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
This week also saw the soft opening of a new Penn Station location here in Seymour. As I chatted with two of the three owners, they shared how excited they were to come to such a welcoming community. Between staff they had hired, contractors they had worked with, and customers they had already served, they couldn’t say enough about how nice the people of Seymour are. Thank you, gentlemen, for not only your investment here in Seymour, but also for reminding me of how others view our community.
This week, Seymour Police Department investigated a dentist office operating illegally here in Seymour. The short investigation led to the execution of a search warrant with state, county, and local agencies followed by an arrest in the case. Good work to everyone that worked on this unusual case.
Members of the Tree Board visited various areas around town this week updating plans for 2024 and beyond. Which trees will be added to the Food Forest project on South O’Brien this year as well as additions to the wind break at the soccer fields were two of the stops. Thank you to the Tree Board members who take time out of their busy schedules to work on the future of our community.
Back to seeing places differently. We went to visit our kids in St. Louis this past weekend, and I did see it differently than when we were there five years ago. I notice things like lift stations that wouldn’t have jumped out at me before. Intersection designs were another area that I didn’t pay attention to on our previous trip. The one that jumped out at me most, though, was related to neighborhood planning. Having to go three blocks out of the way to get a block over into their neighborhood helped me realize that growth is going to happen with or without anyone trying to put best practices in place. Multiple smaller subdivisions could have been phased in with one larger plan so the roads connected and would have made a smoother trip from house to grocery store and back. Back home in Seymour, we are constantly looking years down the road in so many different areas. From putting staffing minimums in place for SPD to sewer projects that try to plan for how and where Seymour will grow 20 years from now, we have to prepare our community for tomorrow as well as keep it moving through today. I think I will leave you with the words of Mark Twain this week. "The future interests me - I'm going to spend the rest of my life there."