Merry Christmas and Year-End Thoughts...

The Christmas Parade
The Ridge Riders Kickoff
Julefest
The Bake Sale
The Chorale Concert
The Solstice Pageant
Christmas Parties Galore

The past few weeks have been anything but devoid of activity!  This time of year never ceases to amaze me.  Following Thanksgiving we kick it into high gear to get together, celebrate, and plan for the next year.

We also spend some time looking back though, and I think that is a good thing!

2014 was a very interesting year for our county and city.  We faced very particular challenges and celebrated very particular blessings.  People have come and gone, we lost some amazing people, and we hope to get some equally amazing people in 2015.

I have been heading to a lot of meetings and get togethers in the past few weeks to meet some more folks and to ask some questions.  I have been pleased to see that most people are interested in chatting with me and everyone that I have talked with have had thoughts about direction and policy!  Keep it coming!  I appreciate the conversation and am always up for a discussion.

On that note, I would like to invite the community to begin considering candidates for Jan Sivertson's City Council position.  Jan has served well on the Council and is moving on to the County level!  All of the best to you Jan!  The position can be filled by anyone living within the City and who is interested in working with policy to help make our community better.  If you know of anyone or are that person, please let me know!  I would love to talk it over with you and answer any questions you may have.  The Council will be taking up appointing the 5th Councilor at one of the first City Council meetings in January.  We would like to identify an active, interested person as soon as we can, as there are elected official trainings that are optional, but that we would like to have all of the new Councilors attend.

(Thank you to those of you who have come forward and put your names in for the City Board and Commission positions as well.  We are still looking for a few interested people, if you are on the fence, let me know.  I would love to talk you through what expectations look like for each of these spots...)

We spend a lot of time at the government level thinking about budget and revenue projections this time of year too and I want to thank our County Commissioners and City Councilors for their work.  Both the City and County will be meeting near the last days of the year to finalize and approve their 2015 planning.  We have no idea what 2015 will bring, but I would like to offer that it will bring renewed energy on many levels and some serious looks to the future of our city.  To our hard-working City employees and department heads, thank you so much for your work.  I look forward to working alongside you in 2015!

There is a lot more I have been contemplating writing about, but this is Christmas week and we all have celebrating to do.  For all of your hitting the road for the holidays, come back to us safe and refreshed.  For those of you celebrating at your home, the merriest of days and equal doses of relaxation to you!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great night!