Renewable Option
Weekly update #258 12/29/2024 to 1/4/2025
Welcome to 2025 and the hope that a new year brings with it. Before I wander around this thought though, let me share some of the last week while serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
As happens at the start of each year, we set out to work on updating our capital plans for the next five years. Some items, like vehicles, are planned out long before this process in our vehicle rotation planning and are just a matter of plugging in numbers. One major part of the process is looking at what needs to be adjusted due to items outside our control. It is often possible something is needed earlier or sometimes later than what was planned a few years ago. By going through the process every January, we have the ability to not only plan but also adjust as needed. Thanks to all the department heads and those that they consult within their departments for working on this each year.
The next item we always work on in January is the year-end reports for the previous year. This is possibly one of my favorite parts of each new year as department heads share snippets from their work. Parks and Recreation and Seymour Police Department were the most active this week on this front, and I can’t wait to read their findings at the end of the month and then share them with council at the State of the City later in February. I know I have already been surprised a few times as they shared what they found while compiling their data from 2024.
More than once this past week we also talked about future goals. I am sure many of us do this each year, but it was a good chance to talk through them with each other as we drilled down into them a little bit. With eyes set on many different fronts, I believe we have one of the best teams around the state here in Seymour. Thank you to the city team for all they do for our community. We wouldn’t see the results we are without your endless efforts and hard work.
A large part of the conversations at the end of this week have been around an incoming snowstorm. Many times the question was the same. Are you ready? My answer stayed similar in each response. We are as ready as we can be, but we are currently in the hurry-up-and-wait phase. Plows are installed, equipment is fueled, and crews are aware of the plans, but how exactly we respond changes based on what exactly we get from this winter storm. Did we get ice prior to snow or snow alone for many hours? Did it hit overnight or during the day? Was it one inch or 144 inches? This is why we plan and why we review after the fact to help us prepare for the next time.
Capital planning, year-end reports, or goals are very similar, and all pieces of each year and not just limited to the start of a new one. They can sometimes be part of the start of a new week or even a new day. They make the hurry-up-and-wait phase much more bearable. They help keep our hope alive and make it easier to renew with a glance at the work laid out for review. Today, I want to leave you with a quote from novelist Barbara Kingsolver on the topic of hope, "Hope is a renewable option: If you run out of it at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning." May 2025 allow you to find renewed hope morning after morning.