Back to School
Weekly update #289 8/3/2025 to 8/9/2025
At the end of the school year my mind always goes to that old Alice Cooper hit “School’s Out.” When I tried to think about a back-to-school song, though, none popped into my head. Before that though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This past week, Jamestown Apartments celebrated National Night Out with residents of the area. The event has been going on for 42 years, bringing together millions of neighbors at over 17,000 sites around the nation.This year, Indiana had 63 communities join in the fun. From the NNO website, the event is to promote police-community partnerships and, ultimately, make our communities safer in the process. A little rain this year didn’t dampen the spirits of those in attendance as they had a warm meal and live music from Outreach Ministries Seymour to start the night off. Then visitors could grab a sno cone from an officer with Seymour Police Department via the Fraternal Order of Police before seeing what agencies and companies who were on hand shared about themselves. Thank you to all that attended this year, and a special thank you to OMS for serving our community and beyond for the way that you do.
Back in 2019, the current 2nd Street project was approved and headed off to the designers to officially start the project. Somewhere along the way the intersection of 2nd and Community was debated as a roundabout or traffic light. Even recently some were stating very confidently on social media that it would reopen as a roundabout. Last month, I shared on Radio 96.3 that it would reopen as a traffic light. This week, after a very long wait with a pandemic in the early stages that slowed most projects down, the intersection of 2nd and Community Drive reopened with traffic lights just in time for school to start the next day. While the project isn’t completed yet, it is one major step closer with this opening and more on the horizon. To everyone who has worked on this major project over the years, thank you for doing your part, and I can’t wait to see that final layer of asphalt go down just before the road closed signs are moved to the next job.
After a quick Google search, I found some back-to-school songs. While I could grab a lyric or two, I will instead share some of our back-to-school items we do as a city each year. Back in 2023, we started applying some purple and white paint to the underpass near Seymour High School. While it isn’t a major item, we tackled it with the city team made up of several department heads, team members, and myself. It always amazes me how quickly a few gallons of paint goes on, and the underpass is refreshed for the coming school year. The Seymour Police Department also has some items they do at the start of each school year as well. They provide extra overtime to allow additional officers at the schools for the first few weeks. Add in the administration for SPD and you have a wonderful chance for our kids in the community to interact with an officer. This year, we also have five School Resource Officers from SPD increasing that number from last year. With the SRO in the buildings and both the Chief and I being just a text or phone call away, we have a wonderful working relationship with Seymour Community Schools. To everyone headed back for the first Monday tomorrow, thank you for all you do to prepare the next generation of leaders. This week, I will leave you with a quote from French Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope."