Category Archives: Tuesday

city council, Tuesday

Tuesday Meanderings

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Tonight was a city council work session on the library project. We invited all the new council members who will be getting sworn in next Tuesday to join us behind the council bench for the presentation by the architect. We might have postponed the meeting until the newbies were sworn in and seated, but we need to send the project out for bid around Thanksgiving – which is less that two weeks away. We’re adding about 5,000 square feet to our existing 11,000 square foot library and making over the interior at the same time. I think it was important for all the council members to understand what the project is and will cost (~$3.2 million), even if we are the ones that got all the money gathered up and said go for it.

It was probably good to have had the meeting for other reasons as well. I needed to sign off on an FAA application for the airport runway extension project so we could get it sent in. We’ve only been working at getting all the OKs needed for 4 years now. But if all goes according to plan, we should see ~$4 million from the FAA for us to match with ~$100,000. I could only wish that everything worked that way!

In any case, all us lame ducks were told to be there next week since we need to open the meeting and then set the swearing in process in motion for the newbies. In addition we are to get a surprise. My guess is either a service plaque or maybe a cake party. What’s your guess?

It is going to seem strange in the morning not to mosey down to the radio station for my Mayoral Midweek show. Although it will be kind of nice to sleep that extra hour. I still have a mayor related meeting at 10am and then have to journey over to city hall to sign a set of documents for the notaries. So far as I can see, that will be the last duty other than opening next weeks meeting. I still haven’t really decided how I feel about the end of my (term limited) three terms as mayor. I think that in and of itself says that it is time for me to go.

Time to watch a late night movie tonight since I don’t have to be radio ready in the morning.

donor, Tuesday

Busy Tuesday

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I just got done doing a quick crossword puzzle to unwind after a long day and I figured you would enjoy the lead off word of the day: vapid – meaning uninspired. Think there might be a resemblance between the word and I?

First, for those of you who could not guess the answer to yesterday’s question of the day. Bob Dylan composed “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” for the movie film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in 1973. As I responded to one commenter, the acoustic version from the movie bears only a passing resemblance to the Guns N’ Roses cover I used.

Today was a busy day. It started with a coffee meeting downtown to pull a surprise on the benefactor who has donated parks, the water park, and the cancer center to this town. In general, he and his wife have not allowed us to name anything after them or even acknowledge their gifts. I had to jump through hoops just to get them to let us put up a 2″ x 5″ plaque on the the fence around the water park acknowledging them. A group of us finally came up with a way to acknowledge them that we hoped they would find acceptable and amusing.

Last week we made up a fake street sign, put it up over the real street sign at the corner of a donated park and across the street from the donated water park. Then we took a photo and arranged to have coffee with the benefactor this morning. I’m sure he thought we going to hit him up for a gift. {*grin*} Instead we talked and visited and then sprang this picture on him.

Since the picture is small and poor quality (I had to scan a printed page), here is what the sign we are pointing to said:
Walsh Parkway

in honor of Frank and Gloria Walsh who have literally given millions to this community.

Frank was both touched and amused at our presentation. He and Gloria agreed we could rename West Elm Street to Walsh Parkway. So in a few weeks, the sign(s) will be real. It’s the small ways of saying thank you to the unassuming nice people like Frank and Gloria that has made this job rewarding.

This afternoon I was the speaker at the Humanities Club to talk about the water issue on the ballot for just about the last time. (The mail ballots are being sent out by Friday and this is a mail only election this year.) Thursday at the Board of Realtors meeting will be the last speaking engagement on the topic.

I followed that with the city council meeting tonight. The city budget was presented and the public hearing scheduled two weeks hence. One of the last things I will do as mayor is guide next year’s budget to adoption. Only two more “regular” council meetings left and I’m out of office.

Well, time to get my notes together for the radio show in the morning. 6am comes early.

Tuesday

Flailing Thru Tuesday

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True fall is close to arriving here in the flatlands. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70s due to the adiabatic heating as the cold front sweeps in. Then the temperature will start falling with lows in the 20s for the rest of the week with snow showers and a high for Sunday right at freezing.

Why the weather report? Because it will be cold enough that i am gong to have to move all the squash and onions in the shed into the back porches, etc. What fun. This is evidently not going to be one of those Octobers with nice warm days all the way into November. Drat!

It also means that tomorrow I need to shut off mom’s, MIL’s, and my lawn sprinkler systems. It sounds like it may be a bit of a busy day. Coupled with several scheduled meetings and a possible community relations impromptu meeting and photo, it might be close to schizophrenic. (You know – How can you be two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all? – from “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers” by Firesign Theater.)

In other not-so-oddities, I can definitely spot that I am getting further along the decrepit curve. I needed to move an old laser printer from my office to the shop at the other end of the house. Ten years ago, lifting the 170-lbs-in-an-ungainly-cube printer would have caused only a small grunt and a bit of strain. Now the lift from the floor to standing position with the beast cradled in my arms seemed endless. Not to mention the staggering journey to the shop. No loud groans, popping, or dropping, but it was clearly a more memorable experience than it was a few years ago. I can remember earning my keep over a college break by carrying 320 lbs boiler plates up three flights of stairs all by my lonesome and it seemed to require no where near the effort exerted on the printer today. Of course, that was 35+ years ago. That might explain many things. {*grin*}

I was visited tonight by a little leprechaun dressed in blue. Yes, that’s right, it is time for the annual Boy and Cub Scout popcorn sale. The little guy at my door was really broken hearted when I had to tell him the I had ties to a Boy Scout Troop and needed to order from the boys there. In a last ditch sales effort, he noted that maybe the bigger boys wouldn’t have trail mix for sale and I could buy that from him. I had to tell him the sad truth that it is the same product line for both groups. To make up for my grinchiness, I pointed him in the direction of a couple of soft-hearted neighbors who are usually good for a popcorn touch.

On with the regularly scheduled disaster already in progress.

council, Tuesday

Tuesday Trivia

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Today was one of those days with odd weather. To start, it was snowy and cold this morning. It was a glorious 10 degrees and had made it up all the way to 18 around noon. We ended up with just a dusting of powder snow, so not enough moisture to measure. I spent much of the day in meetings or waiting for meetings that never happened. A development group was scheduled to fly in to meet about some city owned property, but they were prevented from making it this far north by the wind and snow in southern Colorado. Small planes don’t do real well in snow and high winds. Scratch that meeting. Then about 3pm, the wind started howling here and adiabatic heating quickly took over. The temperature shot up to 50 degrees and the snow all disappeared. Lends credence to that old saying: “If you don’t like the weather in Colorado right now, just wait 15 minutes.”

Got over to visit Mom at the hospital around 6pm and then headed off to the city council meeting at 7pm. It was nice to have a relatively full chamber for the meeting. The exceptional attendance was explained by the presence of two groups, a church and the Girl Scouts.

Many of the attendees were from a local church that came to make a public offer to buy some city owned land for a church. Of course we could take no action on the offer since it wasn’t on the agenda. But they had also supplied it in writing so it will be coming before the council in the future.

Then I got to present the Girl Scouts with a proclamation for Girl Scout Week (March 8-14) in the city. A group of seven Girl Scouts from all age groups were present (along with parents and leaders) to receive the proclamation and give the council some Girl Scout Cookies. Given that L sits on the statewide council, I have already had more than enough cookies, so I and several other council members gave our cookies to be placed in the city staff break room. (Not to mention, no one wants to fill out all the paperwork for accepting a gift. You wouldn’t believe the kind of paperwork the state demands of elected officials to account for any and all gifts.) When I asked the assembled group who wanted to receive the proclamation after I read it, one little cutie piped right up and said she would. It is nice to see kids at that age with the confidence to pipe up and say yes in front of the crowd like that. Really reinforces how effective the organization is in helping the girls succeed in life. I suspect that I will be in the paper once more, this time surrounded by a group of Girl Scouts, most of whom stand barely as tall as my belt buckle. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the photographer will have cut my head off.

Th meeting continued on with other business, and then B from this post used the unscheduled public appearance slot to address the council. A fair amount of time later, we removed the glaze from our eyes and continued on. Obviously the high light of our meeting. {*grin*} Most such appearances wouldn’t be too bad if people had the facts right or even addressed the issue at hand, but that is often not the case.

After the council meeting was done, I headed over to Mom’s to pick up the list of things she wanted that she had given me earlier. I’ll have to take them up to the hospital after the radio show tomorrow morning. I can tell that many of the effects of the anesthetic are fading. She wanted her bag to work on some hand crafts and she was doing the crossword puzzle when I visited earlier in the evening. Both actions are symptoms that she may still be in pain but that her mind has cleared.

Time to head for the bed – 6am comes early.

council, prison, Tuesday

YATA

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Yet Another Tuesday Again. The acronymic titling just keeps on coming.

Today I spent a few hours at the prison listening to the gang intelligence unit. Some interesting stuff and some stuff that leaves you scratching your head and going huh? Probably pretty normal for a non-gang person listening to stuff about gangs and gang members. They covered the gamut from bloods to crips to seranos to nortes to kkk to war … Colorado is interesting in that the prisons don’t segregate by gang like California and some other states do. They practice a zero tolerance “you are all prisoners” strategy and isolate only trouble makers. Doesn’t make some of the gang members real happy.

The gang that was the strangest to me was the Juggalos. The key for membership seems to be a liking of the Insane Clown Posse, often acronymized as ICP in signs and tattoos, and a preference for hatchet or ice pick violence, and/or a liking in general for the music akin to ICP like Dark Lotus, Twiztid, Anybody Killa, Jumpsteady, Psychopathic Rydas, etc. They are one of the rare gangs that accept all religions and races and even allow concurrent membership in other gangs amongst their members. What makes them troubling is that they are a small subset (est. 15%) of all the people who follow ICP in a manner similar to the Deadheads that followed the Grateful Dead. That 15% subset is the actual violent gang, the rest are just somewhat demented music followers. It is also troubling that they are one of the fastest growing gangs in Colorado and in the prison population. The gang logo is a dread locked running hatchet wielding man, often stylized with dripping blood, etc. The iconic image of hatchetman looks like this

This gang is also troubling in that it has a strong middle school  following. The members like to dress in black, wear hatchetman regalia, have tattoos of ICP and the hatchman, and wear clown makeup. Not exactly an inconspicuous crew.

The city council meeting was of the normal variety.  We went through the agenda in a business like manner, had a brief discussion on a couple of upcoming topics, and adjourned. I did try to convince the reporter for the weekly news paper who arrived after the meeting was over that she missed the wildest meeting of the year. I told her that the entire council had stripped naked and danced the can-can on the council bench. She didn’t believe me. She just said that she was really happy she missed it and proceeded to quiz me about the agenda items one by one. Oh well. Maybe I just need better lying skills.