What did that actually Vote for!

Many of you will be traveling this week so I thought I would have something that would help you in case your stuck and are in survival mode.

Moss will always grow on the NORTH side of a tree, that is the side you should lick.

You can actually drink your own urine if you did not bring a bottle of urine with you.

Mushrooms can be poisonous, so give the first one to a friend.

Small animals can be your allies.  Train a small bunny, you will have afriend that will be very sad when you are eaten by a bear.

WAIT - you didn't think I was going to said EAT the bunny did you?  What kind of person do you think I am!!
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it is CRAZY how many times I have done this!!
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I found out it's against State policy for me to bring in an electric frying pan to cook Jones Sausage Links.  Pretty oppressive place now a days! 
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Hey WEATHER PEOPLE.  I have a new app for my iPad.  Wonderground as a great app that gives you some pretty nice maps!    I had been searching for a simple US map with the fronts.  All I could find were complicated maps with all sorts of great features but nothing with just Highs Lows and fronts.     It's now my go to weather app.

For radar I have Weatherscope which costs $$ but I did predict a tornado and left Door Creek Golf early because of it.    Living Earth is pretty awesome and keeps getting better  and of course The Weather Channel.

I'm dumping Weather Live.
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Did you see 60 Minutes last night?  There was a guy talking about a book which looks at underdogs and how they win (in life and sports and so forth).

He got the idea from watching at 8th grade girls basketball program. The coach, an Indian had never even touched a basketball and new nothing about the sport.  His girls could not shoot, dribble and were all poor players.

SO, he said, why bother practicing shooting the basketball.   Being a scientist he wrote down all the parameters for everything and created a winning formula.

How cares about offense.  The key was turnovers.  Play minding numbing in your face 100% full court press for the entire game.  Try to steal the ball ALL GAME,  and get layups under the basket.

His team went to the State Championship.  Thinking outside the box worked.    
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What did that actually Vote for!  

That is the question a few members on the city council are asking.

Things got a little out of hand and it seems if you know parliamentary procedure you can get more things passed easier or at least faster.  If you are a rookie things will get out of hand fast.  

At the meeting I wanted to stand up and say WAIT - SLOW DOWN - WHAT ARE YOU VOTING ON!  As certain members of the council were really pushing things trying to get a fast vote. 

The newspaper made sure Aaron Adams and Micheal Thom, the new members were singled out for voting against the grain and made a big deal about the council voting on an ADDITIONAL $49,000 to go towards roads.

Aldermen Davidson (up for reelection this year) felt if we were going to put money in roads it should come out of less critical budgets such as Aquatic Center and other less important departments (such as the Senior Center I presume).  He stated that we have a five year street plan.

Aldermen Thom said "Yes, we have a five year street plan but we do not follow it at all".

On average Columbus spends $510,146 a year on roads, most of it borrowed money as the budget calls for $50,000 a year.  $50,000 a year is maintenance, not FIXING roads but maintaining what we have now.

The headlines in the paper tout Council OK's budget - puts extra $49,000 toward street repair.   

Well, $49,000 comes out to 286 feet.  The headline should read

Council votes to fix 286 feet of street!!

We now have two more police officers then last year.  This is never a bad thing, it's a catch 22.  More police safer community but poorer roads which will lead to higher taxes.  Less officers, better roads which would lead to lower taxes (higher city assessment) but more crime.  With more officers we will have less thefts I presume and less drug trafficking I HOPE! 

But there has to be at least an effort for street repair. 

There was good news sort of in the budget. The property tax levy, what the city asks you to pay for goods and services dropped almost $100,000.   BUT the mill rate went up because Columbus, according to the State is worth $20 million less then last year.

You ask, how can we lose so much money.  Well, look at the roads!  Just like a house that is run down and gets a lower assessment because of disrepair . . . . so do cities!  Make your house more beautiful, it's worth more, make your city more people friendly, beautiful with good streets . . . we get a better assessment we will be worth more.  (in very very simple terms).  Better assessments and we then can  actually afford a larger police department.

It's all checks and balances when it comes to running a city. Fix one thing and the other goes bad, fix that and something else needs repair.  At some point we NEED to look at roads

Columbus is not in dire straits, we are moving forward at a snails pace but at least it's forward.  I am optimistic about Columbus but at some point we do need to address the road situation since it was not addressed THIS year.

I was surprised that Aldermen Davidson did not agree with the two surveys that have gone out the last few years saying roads were the #1 concern with citizens of Columbus.  He said His opinion was it was not.  Well, his opinion does not count does it?  His constituents opinion is what counts.