Congrats to all Council and the Mayor!!

WOW - the refs said they never saw the VERY IMPORTANT tipped ball that went against Wisconsin when they were looking at the replays - HOWEVER - once they made the call the NCAA official on the sidelines he DID see it on the overhead monitor BUT, decided NOT to reverse his call even though he still could have.  WTF?

However, after the officials left the monitor and made their ruling, Adams (the sidelines head official) said he saw the zoomed-in view of the ball clearly touching Winslow’s finger.

At that point he had the opportunity to quickly make a decision. “I saw it after they had left the monitor, and actually thought about, is it in my prerogative to get up, run over to the table, buzz the buzzer, and tell them to come back and look?” Adams said. “That’s how critical I thought the play was and concluded that this is a job for the guys on the floor. I’ve never done it before. Why would I do it tonight and perhaps change the balance of the game?”

YEA - why be fair when you have a chance to get the call right!  But as one person said - you have to play good enough so that refs are not involved. 

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All the news fit to print and some not.

Top to bottom on City Council and my personal take on things?

Started with a little controversy which hopefully will be calmed down.  The Festival Urban Ninjas are requesting N Dickason be closed for 5 Monday nights this summer for Bike Night.  Motoclasco is having an Antique Motocycle night the 1st Monday of the next 5 months bringing people into town.

The sticking point was how much it will cost the city which was about $1200 for Picnic tables, Trash Barrels, Umbrellas man hours and so forth for each of the five nights.  MY contention was that instead of rubber stamping all five nights let's do the first one and then adjust as we go.  For instance, if we have a beautiful night the first night and 2 people show up we can scale back for the 2nd night.  I did not want to lock in those numbers for 5 nights.

HOWEVER - in retrospect I think DPW could adjust on the fly. I see absolutely no reason to not have all five events. But since we can do one why not see how it goes and adjust UP or DOWN. 

The controversy was when one aldermen had issues that Sandye Adams had her email address on the application for the Festival Urban Ninjas. Seems some have issues with this energetic, loud, brash, headstrong outspoken woman who has done more to promote and market Columbus then all 6 aldermen put together. You can love her or hate her but she gets things done and does not sit on her hands wishing things were better.




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Then there was a whole bunch of city blah blah things (sewer repair, Narcan, fee schedules, pool stuff yada yada).      
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Onward to new business.  

Good news for the Police Station.  With the new roof that looks great (but with some unforeseen installation problems - metal roofs and sensitive electronic communications equipment don't play well together) Chief Meister (actually a 4H Club to stay within the rules) applied for some funds from the Mae Ward funds.

Many of you will instantly know that Mae Ward was the grandmother that ran an orphanage on General Hospital but that is not the funds we are talking about. Our Mae Ward has a beautification fund with about $4K left.  I'm not sure who Mae Ward was but I'll get to the bottom of this as she seems to be a very likable person and wanted Columbus to be beautiful.

ANYWAY - the plan is, if Council accepts the plan (I'm 100% for it) is to beautify the Police Station.  McKay Nursery created plans and the shrubs and perennials would be purchased from McKay and planted by members of the 4H Club under the watchful eye by The Jahnke Company.

I have a lot of experience with McKay plans and knowing all the plants intimately as they are in my yard I am very enthusiastic.  This will look outstanding, maybe not this year but give it 2-3 years and they will be very beautiful.

Well done Chief - I hope we do this.
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DPW is working on plans to have a dumpster for Bulky items and a curb side service for picking up big stuff . The logistics are being worked on.  Also there is a plan in the works to have all residences in Columbus get FREE bins for garbage and recyclable material for the garbage trucks to pick up with their auto loader trucks.
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The Pavilion Projects are zooming along with donations and goals are being reached.  Once the plans are OK'd by the many agencies involved with fixing historical buildings the elevators will be installed.  Why elevators for 2 floors?  Because they will be ADA compliant and the Pavilion will be used MUCH more for larger events.  Ching Ching $$$$$.

Those are the big news events.  New computer system for Waste water was talked about to get them off their old old XP computers and sewer ordinance was talked about which I though was silly and really do not understand why one part was put off.

The problem here is that a residence is responsible for laterals for water that go from their home to the curb where the shut off valve is while the laterals for sewer that the residence is responsible for goes from the home to the middle of the street where it connects with the sewer.  Makes perfect sense to me.

The contention is that one aldermen believes both should be the same. I don't really see it that way and I see all sorts of problems coming from where exactly a sewer problem is . . . unless you like paying lawyers I suppose.  Madison goes to the middle of the street and Springfield ILL goes to the middle.  I'll call around to other communities but I'm pretty sure this is how it's done in most towns.  Are we trying to find a problem where none exists? What exactly is the problem and why the need to have both laterals the same.

Just one of the prices for living in a city.  Unless you don't want a sewer system at all I guess.       

Just my opinion.
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WEATHER - Columbus had 1.14 inches of rain last night with another inch coming tonight! Saturday still marks a warm up for next week with a chance of Thunderstorms each day Tuesday through Thursday.