Stages
Weekly Update #232 6/30/2024 to 7/6/2024
I hope you had a chance to spend some time with your family this past week. Let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Congratulations to Seymour Police Officers Sam Hughes and Joe Fagan for receiving life saving awards from State Fire Marshal Stephen Jones. The honor was for selfless efforts the two showed at a house fire earlier this year as they discovered the fire while on patrol. Good work to both, as well as the firefighters, for their quick actions upon arrival. While police officers and firefighters may be quick to pick on one another they come together like no others when called into action.
With the threat of bad weather we had to postpone Thursday night’s 4th of July fireworks until Saturday night. This decision was not an easy one as the weather forecast predicted a nice evening, but still had some risks in it. The weather for Saturday, though, showed a wonderful forecast and gave everyone a chance to enjoy the 4th with friends and family and then have a second chance to come out on Saturday night for another show. Thank you to everyone who was supposed to be involved in Thursday’s show and to everyone who got involved to help Saturday’s show go off with a bang.
This week during a meeting with Water Pollution Control, I had a chance to get caught up on current projects connected to our State Revolving Fund bond issued earlier this year. I also had a chance to get an update on manhole lining work that was approved as part of our long-term updates process to help reduce infiltration and keep the flow to our plant dedicated to sanitary sewer. This work helps prolong the life of our facilities and keeps us from cleaning clean water that is getting into our system when it rains. Thank you to the team at WPC for their long-term dedication to our community.
I had a chance to cook out with the family over the 4th of July holiday. I then got a few more chances to see all of our girls over the next few days. We are in that phase of life with plenty of graduations, marriages, and spreading their wings and getting out of the nest so to speak. As times change, it reminds us to make time to see our loved ones. Our schedules often keep us from visiting as much as we want. I hear from friends who have lost loved ones that they wish they could just sit and chat about whatever one last time. I usually enjoy just sitting and listening to the conversations going on around me as well. For many years one of my favorite parts of any family get together has been listening to the kids' voices as they say the common table prayer as a group. To the moms and dads with little ones, enjoy it while you can. To those around my age who are approaching an empty nest, don’t forget to be happy and remember how excited you were at their stage of life. To those who have reached the retirement stage stay active and keep moving. Regardless of your stage of life, I encourage you to take the words of Cliffie Stone to heart, "Get out on the stage of life."