Goals
Weekly update #310 12/28/2025 to 1/3/2026
It is that goal-setting time of year again. Before I run down this path though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Even as many of us try to recharge through the holidays and several offices are dark with people on vacation, business continues to go on just at a different pace. This past week, I had several conversations with Planning and Zoning on topics like ordinance violations and inspections. It is also that time of year when electricians come in to renew their electrical licenses for 2026. As we head into next week, the team at Planning and Zoning, and other departments, will start the task of compiling the data from 2025 for their annual report.
The Board of Works and Public Safety met for the last time in 2025 on December 30. A vote on the collective bargaining agreement for 2026 with Seymour Firefighters Union, Local 577, was one of the items. Another of the items was awarding the pool rehab contract to Tabor Owens Construction from Washington, Indiana. We have several steps to go before the first phase of construction begins, leading into the opening of the 2026 swim season. Then, when this season is over, we will have major construction before we open in 2027 with several new items, including a new and improved children's area. With so many different things on the agenda, I will have to say a simple blanket thank you to everyone involved in their own pieces over this year.
Back in October of 2024, I asked my wife to run a 5K in Arkansas. That ask and a New Year’s Day 5K turned into a goal of running one 5K a month for 2025. We had ten to twelve weeks to prepare for that first 5K last January and a simple goal of not walking. As the months moved along and we headed to Arkansas, the goal was to get a little better each run. After that run, though, the goal switched to just wanting to complete the rest of the twelve months. Just a few days before Christmas, we did our twelfth 5K, and my wife reached her goal. My fitness goal for 2026, however, started just yesterday, and we ran our 13th 5K in 13 months. I would like to use this goal, along with a secondary goal, to keep our cardio level up so that we don’t suffer through the last mile like we have the last couple. Without that secondary goal in 2025, we got a little light on the training runs and didn’t do as well as earlier in the year. Our thirteenth run was just a smidge faster than our first, and I know we can do better. Now that I have shared that story, let me share how it connects to work at the city. Each year, at the State of the City, I share what I call futures. Over my six years, I have shared 84 futures, and while we have not accomplished them all, we have finished 81% of them, with several more like O’Brien Street Phases 2 and 3, Shields Park Pool Rehab, and building a Transfer Station getting ever closer. Projects like building the Seymour Fire Department Headquarters on West Second Street was the original goal. Cutting the ribbon exactly one year after we broke ground, though, was a secondary goal that helped get it completed. O’Brien Street is down to just a few properties to complete the Right of Way phase, and we can go out for construction bids. Rehabbing Shields Park Pool was the original goal, but adding the secondary goals to get completed in time for the 2026 and 2027 seasons helps keep the project moving along. As you can see in the picture, the Transfer Station is finally starting to look like a building. Today, I will leave you with a quote about goals from Tony Robbins, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."