"Sand in the Clams"

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the Special Board Meeting
Sept 6

You would have to been present to understand the quote from Mayor/President Jerry Bos.  And because some of his sayings don't make much sense or pertain to the subject at hand...I will spare you the details.

The subject of the Special Board Meeting was the request by the President of the Entrance Advisory Group Committee, Jerry Bos, to approve an expenditure of up to $4,000 of money set aside for monuments to build a test pylon @ Kerns & 76th.

I know my keen readers will pick up the detail of the current EAG President being Jerry Bos.  The previous leader Jim Miller has resigned and somewhere along the line Mayor Bos was elected the new President/Chair of the EAG.  When this happened is unknown, possibly this past Tuesday morning at an early morning meeting of the EAG.  In any event, Jerry did not inform the Aldermen (or the public) at Tuesday's BOA.  He did discuss the aspects of Tuesday morning's meeting in regard to spending $.  It was only by the direct question from an alderman on the composition of the EAG did Jerry inform the BOA of his new position as President.  Odd.  Transparency isn't one of Jerry's strengths.

Because of the relative newness of three of the aldermen (with the exception of Finn) a fair amount of time was spent going over the history of the EAG (rather painful since this spans about 5 years).

Bottom line is this, the EAG has around $22,000 in the bank.  The $70,000 of pledges outstanding are "soft", the target to complete the monument project is around $110,000.  Obviously "the community has to bring money in" (Bos).  Despite this issue, the EAG has decided to forge ahead.  They have identified a vendor in St Joe who says he can make pre-cast cement pylons for around $4,000, compared to the current pylons which cost about $11,000.  The idea is to build a demonstration pylon @ Kerns and 76th, with the possibility of doing the same at the last three monument site (Potomac, WestSide, Kerns/73rd Terr.

Lots of questions regarding the cost of maintenance of the monuments to the Mayor/President.  He says the goal is to have zero maintenance planning for the sites, which means lighting and water for the most part not being incorporated in the sites to be built.

So the vote was to spend the $4,000 for the test pylon (Clark voted no).            

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DOA?

The Official Unofficial Minutes of WL BOA
Sept 3

Tonight @ 6PM, a Special Board Meeting will take place, Topic...EAG Committee Decision.  Apparently, the Committee or at least the Executive portion of the Committee met Tuesday morning.  The meeting was not posted on the Web site, I am assuming it was properly posted on the bulletin board @ City Hall.

Jerry mentioned the EAG wants to move forward and spend $3,000 to $4,000 to build a mock pilon, similar to the previous one built @ City Hall.  Apparently there is a different method that will be less expensive, but have the same appearance as the new monuments (?).  Jerry will be asking the alderman this evening to authorize the expenditure of the money.

Fund raising (Bos/Surma) continues to be stagnant, with only one of the outstanding pledges being contacted in the last three months...not exactly what one would call aggressive.  The whole project lost steam some time ago, and the appetite for the EAG to complete the project has been lost.

Did they bite off more than they could chew?  Take a look at the old monument @  Kerns by the dam ( and the lack of even basic weed trimming), that might be the answer.

Thin Skinned

pick up your marbles (and go home/leave)
to suddenly leave an activity you have been involved in with other people, because you do not like what is happening.
The Free Dictionary

English: Picture of marbles from my collection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
Sept 3

Ok, guilty as charged, continued AWOL from the blog...but I did attend last night's BOA meeting which had its share of highlights/lowlights.

It has been pointed out to me recently the City has stopped publishing official notices in The Landmark (http://www.plattecountylandmark.com/) and switched to The Citizen
(http://new.plattecountycitizen.com/wordpress/?cat=314).  For the casual observer, no biggie.  But inquiring minds want to know, so I posed the question to the Mayor at Open Comments.  After a bit of hemming/hawing and obfuscation the truth came out.  It seems the editor of the Landmark, Ivan Foley, printed remarks about Jerry some time back that offended Jerry.  What's a Mayor to do?  Payback in the form of pulling the publishing of notices in the Landmark and going to the Citizen.  That will show him.  (Also interesting that Commissioner Bev Roper has taken her lumps from Foley as well).

A bit about political persuasion.  I think it is fair to say Mr Foley has a conservative bent, and certainly Jerry has made comments in the past that align to the right.  I think it is also correct to put Mr Stubbs, editor of the Citizen, a good tad to the left of center.  Is Jerry joining up with the libs?

How would you know about the switch?  Nothing about it on the City Web site.  Not noted in Jerry's recent column in the WLL.  It was obvious the aldermen were unaware of the switch as well.

For the most part, there is never anybody from the press attending our public meetings, at least not from my observation the last eleven years.  It gives City officials the opportunity to bask in anonymity not afforded even to their County counterparts.  Thick skinned?  Nah.

Something Old, Something New...

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
August 6

Inauspicious start for my return to BOA meetings, arrived @ 6:50 PM to see the BOA already in session. Say what?  Secret session started @ 6:30 (okay technically I assume they pinned a notice on the bulletin 24 hrs prior, but there was no agenda on the City web site, so I presumed normal 7PM start...as did regulars Ms Payne and Ms Birmingham who were "late" as well.)

So what was the need for an early start?  Not sure, but must have been related to the changing of the guard on the West side.  Vic DeJong resigned to move to greener pastures and his replacement was sworn in.

Something Old, New
Which leads me to the new alderman, Steve Clark.  He was an Alderman from the East Side for a number of years, before moving to the upscale West Side.  How many aldermen have served on both sides of the lake?
(does that make him "bi"?).  Anyway, Mr Clark successfully navigated offering an ordinance, something Vic never managed to figure out.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue
The BOA dipped into the City Kitty to borrow some of the city surplus to spend unbudgeted money for something our Men In Blue wanted, a new police vehicle,  More about that later.

boa_lq (Photo credit: florian_1_1_2)

The Blog is Back

My summer siesta (more like comma) is over.  A change in job responsibilities had me traveling to the East a number of times...and hammered three successive times by cancelled flights or missed connections...I can tell you where to stay in Detroit, Minneapolis or Atlanta...just ask.

But I digress.

Big stuff happening.  Vic DeJong goes AWOL and gives up his West Ward Alderman position.  A short list was developed and the winner is...

You will have to wait for my next post.  Nobody knows except the Shadow.

So come back and see the news you will only find here.