Where
Weekly update #317 2/15/2026 to 2/21/2026
Henry Kissinger said, "If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere." I know where I want to go with this week's update, but first, let me share some of my journeys this week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week, the Seymour Fire Department training facility grew. The new addition provided through a state grant has arrived and been assembled. This was part of the Hub and Spoke expansion to fire training during Governor Holcomb’s administration. This will allow not just SFD to train, but also allow other area departments a chance to train closer to home.
For several years now, I have hosted a pastor chat at City Hall. As time has gone by, how frequently the event happens has changed. This year, I decided to stop the quarterly group meeting and instead dedicate more time to sit down with local pastors one or two at a time and catch up with them and their congregations. This past week, I had the first few of the year and learned about various work they had going on and also share about chances for them to be involved with a few events that benefit the community, like Jackson County United Way's 30th Annual Day of Caring coming up in May and Make Seymour Shine in April. If you are an area pastor and haven’t heard from us yet, don’t worry, we are trying to spread the meetings out over the year and will be in touch.
We were notified a few days ago that we had been awarded one of the last three phases of the O’Brien Street corridor via a Federal Aid Grant through the Indiana Department of Transportation. Prior to this week, we had one of the seven phases complete. Three more have been approved for funding. Of those three, two phases are headed out for bids later this year. The third one is currently in the right-of-way phase. The new phase we were awarded last week is between Bennet Street and Burkart Boulevard on the northside. Thank you to everyone involved in developing the plans that have gotten us this far, and thank you to the selection committee who worked on this and chose our application from what I am sure were many good submissions.
Back to the words of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, "If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere." Former Chief Brad Lucas knew that a training facility was needed for our firefighters to better serve our community. Governor Holcomb’s administration saw something similar and created a program to strategically place facilities across the state, choosing Seymour during their fourth round of announcements. Several years ago, I knew that I wanted to have a chance to hear from area clergy about the community. While the approach has changed, the original goal has not. The first phase of O’Brien was awarded prior to my time serving as mayor. I was also given the chance to continue working on the next six phases, with the first being pitched just a few weeks into my first term. We knew where we wanted to go and have continued to work towards it for the last six years. Yesterday, I was joined by over 20 Polar Plungers supporting Special Olympics from here in Jackson County. While the team SOIN Jackson County Seymour Tsunamis didn’t hit their goal this year, they did raise over $10,000 for the season and kept raising funds all the way to the plunge. If you would like to donate, you still can just reach out to a team member for details. All of the above had someone who knew where they were headed, helping prevent the roads followed from leading to nowhere.