Out of 5 "conversations" and after all the misinformation they had in their heads it all boiled down to distrust in the School Board.
Most knew FOR SURE that we would have a referendum next year for a school.
But what concerned me most were the number of people with families that were distraught at the direction Columbus was heading.
Let's just step back for a second, take a breath, relax and calm, breath, calm. And let's go back in time.
When I moved here Columbus was in a very very dark period. Many people have forgotten that time. Citizens were actually embarrassed to say they lived in Columbus as we were in the news all the time. Firefighters were being taunted as they fought fires, the newspaper was constantly inundated with insulting political posts. The City Councils were scream fests and the Auditorium was in real danger of being razed.
Then in 2008 Universal Studios came and I started this blog. Here is how black that time was and I'm not bragging, just showing HOW black that time was.
The CDA gave this blog the 2008 Business of the Year Award.
A DUDE WITH A BLOG WON BUSINESS OF THE YEAR IN 2008.
The reason? Because while roving the streets talking to people that lived here there was a real bubbling of love for this town that was being crowded out by negativism and I wanted to tell THEIR story. More and more people would come up to me saying they LOVED this town and if we could just stop the bickering and the "he said she said" we could really move Columbus forward.
I felt there was a silent majority of people that were NOT content to just survive.
So now we have people depressed and threatening to move out of Columbus.
Six years ago even the fact that we had a referendum would have been a miracle. When talking about the future of Columbus on some of my boards and committees I'm now on I'm told that people are really optimistic about our direction. Things that would not even be considered 6 years ago NOW can be talked about.
Things take a long time to change but if I thought that Columbus was not going in the right direction and looking at the future, I would never have run for City Council. I'm not a guy that will jump onto a sinking ship trying to save it. I'm more of a guy that see's positive change is actually happening and I want to jump on that ship so I can take credit for it. I'm like a canary!
So just relax and have faith. The referendum was a stumble on the sidewalk but at least we are walking on that sidewalk. Six years ago Columbus was content on just rocking on the porch letting the world fly by!
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In other Columbus news.
As I mention before the School board now has all sorts of money to spend since they are not buying land. One thing (not related to the referendum I suppose) are new bleachers at the football field. These will be really nice handicap accessible bleachers twice as high as the ones we have now. First row will be 4 feet off the ground and twice as many rows as the bleachers we have now. A little shorter but much higher. There have been accidents in the past few years and there is a need. This is no cost to the city and will be an almost exact replica of Pardeeville's bleachers.
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I'm on the task force for the 1st phase of the 16/60 reconstruction and we have been working mostly with the downtown district because this is what the DOT needs to have solidified since it's an historic area. The reconstruction will be in six sections. All overhead cable and wires will be gone, a lot of trees will be chopped down because they are too close to the road but the city will get $$ for each tree and new trees will be planted.
MY goal is to make Columbus more geared to humans. The DOTs goal is to make Columbus traffic friendly because, well . . . they are the DOT. But "we" have power. If the DOT had their way they would just take out ALL the sidewalks downtown. We are actually adding sidewalks in this corridor and making sure we do not lose what we have. Already there was a plan to take 2 feet of sidewalk away from the downtown area. NO WAY WILL WE ALLOW THAT!
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I tell ya - it's going to look GREAT. The one problem is trucks turning at the four corners and there will be some conversations with DOT about this. There is already an OSOW (Oversize Over Weight) thing where OSOW trucks are not allowed into Columbus, well, why not ALL turning trucks. There are other routs they can take. My idea was to make that turn so hellish they would not want to turn in Columbus. We would have to catch them in the act of messing with corners. Probably not the best idea LOL
There was a comment that people do not know where their money is going in Columbus so I think I will attempt to expose the budget in a dummied down version in the future.
There are some major changes coming to the Aquatic Center that is a little point of contention at the moment as some do not feel we need an oversite committee while others (such as me) believe that if the Aquatic Center is being split off from Parks and Rec there needs to be an oversite committee just like every other department in town. Stay tuned.
Another interesting tidbit. I was a little surpassed that we allowed strip joints and adult book stores in Industrial zones but here is the deal. If you do not have an area in town designated for these types of establishments THEN, if someone wanted to go to court, they could go ANYWHERE!
So we MUST have a Conditional Use for these establishments where we can so "NO, you can't go there". It's weird. We can not auto-block BUT we can deny.
OH - Does anyone want to go on a tour of our Wastewater Treatment Facility? Seriously. I have been told by a number of people that it's a pretty awesome place. Very high tech and one person said "you will really be surprised".
Columbus has a very very up to date Wastewater Treatment Facility. Don't make me go alone! Bring a camera! It's not just a bunch of poop! FIELD TRIP!!!
Contact me at rmelotte@columbuswi.us Maybe a weekend???
Rod
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