I Am Happy to Report

The cobblestone will be going down on Friday in Columbus with filming on Monday.

This comes from Sleepy via the JD Zone.

The reason for the delay was weather, inspiration, a small yet stressful fire and what I believe could be exhaustion as they had been doing all nighters for six days in a row.

Seems Michael Mann, just like in Columbus, has been finding more and more scenes to shoot. Friday a cold front went through bringing good size hail, snow and extreme wind to the north woods which set things back.

At the City Council meeting last night we were told that once again the cobblestone will be going down. Not sure of Madison but it is being investigated by . . . . sources.

There is a rumor that The Rogers Hotel in Beaver Dam has a sign that says Red's Pharmacy. Anyone want to check that out?

Also I'm wondering about the use of the Poser House for a 2nd time. Has anybody heard "who's" house it is? Why it's being used?
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The Auditorium.

We arrived at City Hall about 20 minutes before the open meeting. They were having a secret meeting first. As DJ and I enter and walk up the stairs we see a group of people that look like they are preparing to enter the principals office for a scolding. Crowded wooden benches and strained grins.

I'm carrying my yellow notebook with all of my garden plans but hidden deep inside is my audio visual presentation (without the audio part).

I meet a couple other CAC people along with Josh and Jenny and shakenbsis (must own oil stock) who has driven the 60ish miles north to attend.

Doors open and we file in and before I can push and shove my way to the back of the room the rows are filled and I must sit, FRONT ROW!

Meeting COMES TO ORDER.

And there they sit (I was going name the council but the City Website, I believe, is not up to date and a large number of links are broken anyway).

There is some business talk and I'm not really listening because I'm suppose to say something and as I rehearse my "lines" my mind keeps drawing a blank after I say my name. Why am I so nervous! You could hand a microphone to me in the middle of a packed Miller Park at a Brewer game and I would have no problem but here?? I'm suppose to say something intelligent?

All I know is there is a blah blah blah and then Dale who is the head of the CAC stands up and proudly passes out a BUNDLE of YOUR incredible emails.

He speaks a little and then reads a few of the emails and they were very moving (you giys are awesome). Of course everything he is reading is the exact words I was going to use . . . if I could remember them.

A few more words and he sits down.

Nancy (the Principle) then says "Rod"?

Boyd Kraemer the City Admin is staring at me waiting, Anne Donahue the City Clerk, waits behind her laptop, she is taking down names and typing, the three cameras are rolling for the TV and Nancy smiles.

(Nancy's blog)

I stand up and say all their names to get their attention and then I say my name (to get MY attention) and hand out photos of the the City Hall. I ask them to take a good look and them, close their eyes, and imagine a wreaking ball smashing the walls. That is would could happen if the city does not approve the $300,000 for the roof.

It was about that point when the room sort of spun and I became only semi-conscious. The words coming out of my mouth were just random beeps, chirps and whistles for the next 45 minutes (or maybe 1 minute, I'm not sure, I was not there). The next thing I know is I was sitting down and some guy was talking about water and we were looking at charts full of numbers.

THIS I could understand and I actually thought it was very interesting once I came too. They were just like the charts I stare at when playing SIM CITY. I wanted to raise the rates 1%, change all roads to light rail for 10 years and build a Stadium . . . . . OK, only others that play SIM CITY would understand that. Sorry.

Nancy had pity on the rest of the CAC people and called for a break before they started talking about the sewers. I did learn that Columbus is in the top 10% of other communities when it comes to how much we pay for water. However, that is because we had to upgrade the water works while other communities in the area have not upgraded yet.

So while we are #3 out of 30 now, we will drop in comparison in the coming years. People complain about taxes without understanding WHY they are so high. I did have questions but . . . . . I was still recovering from my trauma.

After a Culvers meal we disburse feeling like we did what we could.

Later I received this email.

ZERO OPPOSITION!!!!!!!!

No dissection in the City Council troupes.

The Mayor and City Administrator spoke favorably of the project. The official vote will be May 20, although several times it was mentioned that any concerns should be brought up at tonight's meeting.

None.

Honestly we all feel that your blog and everyone's financial support and emails and photography support made the difference in how easily this came through. THANK YOU.

Tonight you and your "minions" effected a positive change. Too bad we all had to sit through a 70 minute presentation on Water and Electric rate projections for the next 15 years.

Hey! The Water and Electric rate projections I thought were pretty interesting. They failed to show a per person rate change in the last 10 years though. That will be on a new blog :-)

I want to thank all of you in PE-C land for helping out. You really did make a difference. It's not often that a person can be with a group of people, all working and hoping for a positive result on something this important and we can actually make a difference. You can and should be proud of yourselves.

I'm proud to know you.

The 15ish wonderful emails opened their eyes, the $387 we raised in the last week from people around the nation and the photos were all part of the process. THANK YOU.

BTW - yesterday Pay pal received donations from

Matt from Oshkosh
Michelle from Columbus
Daina from Madison
Erik From Madison

Total is now #389.22.

NEW - with the roof being fixed now the CAC can move ahead.

The CAC is working with Boris Frank Associates to streamline and maximize fund raising efforts. Boris will be working with local citizens over the next two months to solicit opinions and ideas on the restoration.
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on a super quick side note.

I had the thrill of getting a GOOGLE ALERT the other day about an news article on the web concerning Public Enemies. The thrill was that I WROTE THE PIECE!!

My bulbous ego head made my ears hurt.
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With that I will leave you with what I hope is my final SNOW photo of the year.
Peace
Rod M

JD photo contributed by Chris C. TY