Pools
Weekly update #296 9/21/2025 to 9/27/2025
As I watched Maci Baurle, the director of Jackson County United Way, receive a donation from two of Jackson County’s high schools, I got to thinking about where JCUW started. Before I dive deeper into this though, let me share some other highlights from my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week had a couple of items related to pools. The first was a presentation by HWC Engineering at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting to give an update at the 60% phase of the design work for the Shields Park Pool Project. This project is broken out into two construction phases. Phase A is related to the main pool area with new mechanicals and more to be completed before the start of the 2026 pool season. Phase B wraps up a few main pool items, but mostly involves the kids area along with new bathrooms and more being completed by the start of the 2027 pool season. The project update can be found on the City of Seymour Youtube channel if you want to watch the Board of Works Meeting from 9/25/2025. Thank you to everyone working on this project as it has many moving pieces as we try to keep it on target for the next two years.
The other pool related item from this past week was the See More Wrinkles event to support a new video scoreboard at the Seymour High School Pool. The event was a chance for family members and former swimmers to suit up and have some fun while helping raise a few dollars for the project. With plenty of smiles and more laughs than I could count, I would say the event was a success. From parents who had never swam in a competition before to former college athletes, with fun events like the cannonball contest, sweatshirt relay, and denim race, it had a little bit of everything for all. Thank you to everyone who came out; with your help, along with other donors, I believe the project is almost ready to get started. Thank you also to Dave and Chris Boggs for all you do when it comes to helping the swim community here in Seymour.
Council approved the first reading of the ordinance of appropriations and tax rates, or the 2026 budget if you want to think about it in less formal terms. I have mentioned a few times in previous weekly updates that Senate Enrolled Act-1, passed earlier this year by the State Legislation, has made this budget season more difficult than previous years. The department heads did a good job of planning around a 1.5% increase instead of the usual 3% for next year on consumables. Inflation last month was 2.9%, and if it stays at that rate into 2026, we will have to adjust some lines before the end of the year. Council did vote to give a 3% raise to staff which will keep our employees slightly ahead of inflation if it doesn’t jump. Thank you to members of council for the supporting votes as we prepare for 2026.
To get back to that opening thought. In 1962, a group of concerned citizens worked to establish the Jackson County United Fund who, in their words, “wanted to find an easier, and more efficient, way to help social agencies in our county.” When I see a group come together like two schools to help Jackson County United Way, it makes me wonder what that group of concerned citizens would think of our community today. Would they be proud of the schools or inspired by the fundraising efforts towards a project like the SHS pool scoreboard? If they were still around would they be bragging to their friends about the actions their kids, grandkids, and great grandkids are doing to help support social agencies here in Jackson County? I will leave the answer to that question for you to mull over and simply leave you with a quote from Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."