Time to Think
Weekly update #290 8/10/2025 to 8/16/2025
The past couple of weekends, I have been helping my daughter and her husband refinish hardwood floors. Before that though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This past week, I had a chance to visit with one of our community partners and some old friends from back in my non-profit days at the Jackson County United Way ribbon cutting. If you have not had a chance to stop by their new office, they are located on East Second Street between Broadway and Ewing. While you are there, I encourage you to learn about all they do for our community and have for many decades now. One of the areas they have been focused on over the last several years is Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed or ALICE for short. ALICE could be a relative or a friend who is employed and makes just above the poverty level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. This is just one of the many topics JCUW works on so stop by and ask for the ten second tour and see what you can learn and how you can get involved.
Did you make it out to Scoop the Loop this weekend? Maybe you had a chance to visit with old friends at the Tom Gray Memorial Prescoop Car Show. On Friday night, they had 206 entries at the car show hosted by the Fraternal Order of Police with the help of the Seymour Area Cruisers. Bad Medicine rocked out on the stage. Car shows are always interesting to me as some will roll up in a classic restoration that costs more than my first home, and others will come in a daily driver that they have poured hours of time and gallons of sweat into. Sometimes, you will find both enjoying the fruits of the other's labors as they walk the area to see what they can see. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you for supporting the event as the funds raised go to the local Shop with a Cop program that the FOP hosts later in the year.
This week, for my department visit, I had a chance to combine several departments into one morning as I helped take care of some grass mowing needs at the Freeman Municipal Airport with the Department of Public Works bushhog while I was out with Parks and Recreation. If you enjoy mowing grass and are interested in being a part of the airport team, reach out as they have an opening and are looking for someone who is the right fit.
I opened this week sharing about helping my daughter and her husband refinish hardwood floors, and in doing so I have had plenty of time to think with the hum of a floor sander serving as the backdrop all while preparing my muscles for a stiff morning the next day. Refinishing a hardwood floor is more about the prep work than anything because you can not rush the sanding or you will be doing it again sooner than you want. This really is a good analogy when it comes to road projects. Second Street for example began in 2019, and everyday it gets closer to being a finished project. O’Brien Street began in 2020, and about two months ago we went out for proposals related to the inspection when construction begins. A few weeks ago, we narrowed the six candidates down to three, and this past week, we did interviews with those three to choose one. As there are a few layers of paperwork left to be submitted, I won’t announce the winner today, but I can say the committee had a tough time selecting because each company had items they liked. To all the companies, thank you for your interest in working with us on the O’Brien Street project, and to my kids thank you for the chance to learn something new and giving me plenty of time to think. Today, I will leave you with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson to remind us to be patient as we work towards finished projects, "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."