Spring
Weekly update #269 3/16/2025 to 3/22/2025
This week brought the first day of spring along with memories of the past. Before I expand though, let me share some of this past week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
In just a few weeks it will be Make Seymour Shine where we encourage everyone to clean out the garage, pick up the yard, and tote those random items up from the basement so we can get them headed to the landfill. For 2025, Make Seymour Shine will be April 7 - 11 on your regular trash day. For no extra charge, we will haul off that broken down jet ski or retired couch you thought you would keep but have never used if you set it at the curb to be picked up on your regular trash day. While this event is slated for one week each year, we often end up with several weeks of prep work and some overflow into the week after for those that forgot what week it was. Hopefully, if you are reading this, you will get started early and fill up your trash toter each week to help reduce the workload the week of, but if not the Department of Public Works is prepping for another great Make Seymour Shine.
A few hundred feet of 24” storm line is not an inexpensive repair, but the stormwater crew at Water Pollution Control tackled just that this week to help those spring rains make their way from neighborhoods in the northwest quadrant to the river smoother. This is just one of many projects going on with WPC at the moment as they are also updating the Ultra Violet system at the plant which will be more efficient than the old system and create savings when it comes online. Mix this with the new belt press that is currently being installed and it will be fun to compare electric bills in the future. Thank you to everyone at WPC for all their hard work that often goes unnoticed by many.
Parks and Recreation saw a few lighting projects completed or nearing completion this week. Several years ago, the park board approved a long-term lighting project for sports facilities, and this week saw another major step towards that goal with the installation of the soccer lights. This addition will allow the start of the spring season and the end of the fall season to run more efficiently as they will no longer be fighting daylight on the last game of the night. Other parts of this project included updating all the ballfield lights to LED and adding lights to diamonds four and five at Freeman. This week also saw the update of lights at the community center with a donation from Home Depot to help keep the center bright and active for all who attend. The donation was installed this week by parks staff and solved some of the flickering lights that were giving them trouble. Thank you to everyone involved in both the projects, and big thanks to Home Depot for all their recent help making our community center better for all.
Well, I guess I will leave this week by wishing you all a happy spring now that it has officially sprung. I will also smile as I think of those who have gone before us. Grandma Ethel was born on the first day of spring, and each year, I can’t help but remember the fun times when it comes around. It has also been 15 years since we lost Zach and Todd, and each spring break that comes around worries me until school starts the following week. The accident that took you from us set off a series of moments that are not just memories, and while everyone here has aged a decade and a half, you two are forever the same age in a bubble in our minds. Today, I will leave you with a quote from the winningest coach in Colts history Tony Dungy, "I would want America to know our kids need us. Spend as much time with your kids as you can. Enjoy them. Be with them. Hug your children; You never know when it will be the last time."