Weekly letter Friday, July 16th, - Friday July 23rd 2010

Greetings from the mayor's office. I hope you have had a good week and will be able to have some rest and relaxation with your family over the weekend.

Friday evening, July 16, Kay and I had dinner with Mark and Phyllis Whitt at the new Chinese Restaurant in the Publix Center. It was good food and they had a good crowd or people there tonight. I ate plenty of sushi, oysters on the half-shell, and seafood salad. I saw Kedrick and Trudi Romine there tonight. Kedrick and I didn't have Chinese food when we were growing up at Blackburn.

We rode around town for a while tonight to see what was going on. There were a lot of folks downtown having fun. We saw the Harper's and Todd's coming out of LuVici's following their dinner. We went on out to Chic-fil-A for an ice cream before going home.

Saturday morning I went to the Mud Volleyball event at Swan Creek Park. The CASA Organization was the sponsor of the event, and they had a big crowd attending. i think around eighty teams attended and played in the tournament. All the politicians were out and active, meeting the folks, providing water and snacks, and trying to get the attention of people. Helen Carter did a good job with her co-workers to make this event successful. Mike Pylant, an employee of our city, was in charge of all the referees, score-keeping, and making sure scorecards were turned in correctly.

Saturday afternoon we also had our grandchildren at our house to spend the weekend with us. They have a good time playing with the other kids in our neighborhood.

Sunday morning I attended the Deacon's Prayer service, then Kay and I attended Sunday School. After Sunday school, I went to the Hindu Temple for their Car Festival. This has nothing to do with cars, but it involves the moving of their deities from one location to another. Dr. Sahu and his family invited me to the festival which includes people from all over north Alabama. I have learned quite a bit about the Hindu people and their religion.

Sunday afternoon I spent some time in the pool relaxing at Charles' house with the kids. I attended Church tonight and listened to Larry Hicks, my Sunday school teacher, preach the sermon tonight.

Monday morning Kay and I left town for a couple of days rest and relaxation. We drove up to Bell Buckle, Tennessee, for our first visit to this quaint place. There were no festival activities going on today, but the antique stores and the Bell Buckle Cafe were open. We had a country vegetable lunch at the cafe that was very tasty. They had a lot of folks that seemed to be local at the cafe today. The Webb school is also located here in this small town. It is a private school, I think for boys, and one of the buildings has the names of ten students on the wall who became Rhodes Scholars. I think it is sixth through twelfth grade. Wayne Rogers, who played on "Mash" is a graduate of the school.

We drove on the Nashville on I-24 and arrived at Hampton Inn, downtown, around 2:00. The first thing I did upon arrival was to take a nap. This is a great motel that is about two blocks south of Broadway.
We went downtown to find a place for dinner, and wound up at Joe's Crab Shack. This is a good place to eat whenever you are in Nashville. We had a regular dinner, but you could order a crab and shrimp boil in galvanized buckets filled with crab legs, shrimp, other fish, corn, potatoes, and all the trimmings. I saw a couple that had a bucket each. That looked like a lot of food. This restaurant was destroyed in the flood and had to be re-done. It must have just re-opened.

We went back to the motel and turned in early. I was still very tired from all my activities during the recent campaign. The motel also had a very good bed.

Tuesday morning we had an excellent breakfast at the motel, then did a lot of visiting around different areas of Nashville. We saw several neighborhoods being renovated and the old houses were looking very good. I am glad to see run-down areas being re-vitalized, and new families moving in. This is a good use of resources.

We looked around the Parthenon Park area to see how it had been developed and beautified. We also visited the dog park located nearby, and a lot of folks had their dogs out on this beautiful day. I was amazed that the city had been cleaned up so well from the recent floods. I know there must still be debris around different areas, but we honestly did not see any bad places. I hope this means the city is well on its way back to normalcy.

We left the Nashville area and drove down old highway 31 from Franklin to Columbia and Pulaski. We ate a late lunch at the Bluebird Cafe in Pulaski. We met a nice young lady from Minor Hill who worked in the cafe and enjoyed our visit with her. Her name is Jordan Pickett. She is an excellent waitress, and really promotes the cafe. I have never seen a young person be so positive about her place of work. She really took care of the customers.

We got home late in the afternoon and I took another nap when I got in. We did very little the remainder of the day and night, and went to bed early.

Wednesday morning I came to the office and had two people to come in for visits. I discussed issues with these people and they were very important issues for themselves.

I later went to Dr. Hennigan in Decatur for my regular check-up. He is very pleased with my progress in dealing with diabetes. I had lost 24 pounds since the last visit, and all my numbers that matter were very good. He told me I did not have to come back for another six months. I really felt good about this visit.

I came back and spent time at the office, then home to do a few chores around the house. Dinah and I went to Choir practice tonight. We had a good practice tonight. Ken Culberson, one of our members, filled in for our Director Ryan Leffel, who is on vacation. We are practicing our music that we will present at our worship service on our 190th Anniversary at the Church.

Thursday morning I had breakfast at Jack's with Evan Thornton. We saw several folks, Syd, Joe Campbell, Carlos Hardy, and others. They all have breakfast about every morning at Jack's. The breakfast is very good and reasonable.

I met this morning with Heather, my consultant, to discuss my campaign. We also made phone calls to set up meetings for fund-raising. We met with a local group to discuss my campaign with them. I really enjoy meeting with groups to promote my campaign and beliefs to them. This is what you have to do when you run for office on the state level. There is a great competition for contributions because of the expense in running a campaign.

I met with industrial officials today at lunch to discuss an on-going project within the city. This project seems to be going well and should be ready for the next Council meeting for approval.

I spent the afternoon in the office meeting with citizens regarding city business.

Tonight I went to the Police Station and spoke to a group of four Police Reserve Officers who have been through our Mini-Academy to learn about how to serve our Department in a supporting role. The guys had some family members with them and I enjoyed speaking at their ceremony. I also got to swear them into service.

I later went to Church to attend another session of learning about developing plans to renovate our Church campus. This is my second time to hear it, and we had a fairly good crowd to attend. This project will take time, money, and a lot of plans before we are ready to proceed with it.

Friday morning I spent time in the office getting business done and getting caught up on some things I need to complete. I talked with several people, including those who have been having trouble getting their money back from American Shingles Roofing Company. Whatever you do, don't do anything with this company until we find out what is going on. They have a bad report and name from the Better Business Bureau and I hope someone can get them stopped from taking money from their customers.

I had lunch with Jason Harper, Office Manager of the TVA office in Huntsville. We had lunch at LuVici's and discussed TVA business and city of Athens business. We also rode down to Cowford to have a look around. I will see him again at a meeting in Huntsville.

The City Council will meet for a regular meeting on Monday night. The following items of business will receive attention from the Council:

1. Hold a public hearing to hear comments on the rezoning request of St. Paul's Catholic Church, located at 1900 Highway 72.

2. Hold a public hearing to hear comments on the annexation and zoning request of Earl and Mary Marbutt for property located at Pepper Road/Oakdale Road. If the property is annexed, an ordinance to zone the property will be considered.

3. A resolution to approve travel expenses for the Water/Wastewater Department.

4. A resolution to approve a special use permit for Open Range to co-locate equipment at 108 East Elm Street.

5. A resolution to approve an Economic Development Project for Custom Polymers PET, LLC.

6. A resolution to approve the purchase of a Skid Unit for Athens Fire and Rescue.

7. A resolution to purchase additional land for Leak City Training Facility.

8. A resolution to declare public nuisances at Watercress Subdivision.

9. A resolution concerning an agreement between the City of Athens Utilities and Central Service Administration.

I guess this is enough for this time. I hope you will find some fun for your family to do this weekend. Take care and do not get too hot.

Take care and I will see you next time. mayordan