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We’ve been here before

Sitting in the Fairmont City Council work sessions last week, I had feelings of Deja Vu. Haven’t we been here before? Are we not repeating conversations that have already taken place? With the roughly $12 million in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) that council has available, it’s looking to spend about $10 million on an all seasons rec center. It was first referred to as a community building and then settled on as all seasons rec center. It was largely agreed upon not to call it a community center as there are sore feelings associated with that exact phrase. Call it what you want, ...

Never take for granted

We’ve all heard that we should not take things for granted, but it never hurts to give a reminder about this piece of wisdom. I was at a meeting with some local business owners recently and one of them pointed out how when we visit other cities, especially, say, up north, we often go to their parks, their local coffee shops and eateries and check out their museums and such, yet many people haven’t even done that in their own town. So many people who live in Fairmont haven’t visited a local coffee shop or many of the local parks. Yet I sit in government meetings and hear people ...

Will they or won’t they?

The Fairmont City Council tabled another project at its meeting this week. This one is for new pickleball courts which may or may not come to fruition. For some background, a few months ago the council approved a capital improvement project to move the courts from their current location at Veterans Park to the Winnebago Avenue Sports Complex. However, input was received, suggesting that they go elsewhere. Two of the locations included different sides of the soccer complex and the other location was where the skate park currently is. The Fairmont Park Board suggested they go at the ...

Et. Cetera

Thumbs Up Council OKs phase two of harvesting The Fairmont City Council approved going ahead with the second phase of a contract with Premier Lake Harvesting for Curly Leaf Pondweed removal and disposal this week. In their report to the board, it was shared that during phase one more than 129,000 pounds of the aquatic invasive species has been removed. We’ve all seen it and we’ve heard the complaints and while it won’t entirely eradicate the problem, it’s good that the council is taking steps toward combatting this problem. Thumbs Up Songs of the summer The Fairmont City ...

City Council vs. City Staff

An added agenda item on Tuesday night’s Fairmont City Council meeting agenda ended up being a 45 minute back and forth between council members and staff. This wasn’t the first time there’s been a heated sort of “he said, she said” discussion between the groups at a council meeting, and it probably won’t be the last. The discussion stemmed from an email sent out last week about the purchase of a Vactor truck (sewer cleaner) and whether the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had the authority to approve of the purchase. Also, it’s important to note that the truck was ...

The benefits of a book

On Tuesday’s opinion page there was a column from Rich Lowry titled “Our screen culture increasingly can’t read” that struck a chord with me. In it he cites a New York Times survey that said 80 percent of teachers said that students at their schools have a device assigned to them and that more than 80 percent said that kids get devices assigned to them by kindergarten. He also mentioned a report that said over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83 percent of school districts. I was interested in this correlation as it’s something I’ve been curious about. I ...