My notes from tonight's meeting are posted below...
-- We started the meeting by honoring two long-term employees who recently retired: Jerry Dolson and Dano Koehler. I didn't get a chance to work with Jerry too frequently, but I certainly was in touch with Dano on a regular basis. He was very, very helpful in getting results for residents who reached out to me for help.
-- For the second consecutive meeting, residents from the Emerald Woods neighborhood attended the meeting to show their great displeasure with the condition of their roads. I spoke with one of the residents before the meeting, and assured him that I have his back. ... This is what I have been talking about the past three years: We can't cut the roads budget by $1 million per year without seeing the detriment materialize itself. People thought I was crying wolf. But I was being genuine. And I will continue to fight for more infrastructure funding.
-- OK, now for what everyone wants to know: .
-- The city's leaf pickup program begins October 22 and it will last six weeks. Click HERE to see when your street is scheduled to be visited. Each street should be picked up at least twice.
-- Another city administrator is retiring: City engineer Jim McCleary is done at the end of the month because of the state pension reform. My initial reaction was, "Ouch." I leaned to Jim Costello and told him: "We could lose all of our city's institutional knowledge within the course of a few months." It will be the administration's great challenge of 2013 to cope with these personnel losses, second only to balancing the budget for the first time in several years.
-- City council's next meetings will fall on the week of October 22.
