Ye Ha The Good Guy Won

Well "silly season" is officially over for another year.

The Mayoral race is complete... and the "good guy" won. Unofficial final count called in to headquarters was 55% us, 45% them. Funny comment heard from several people in the room: "oh thank God, now we don't have to move!" Of course this would not have been funny if we had lost. Literally more than half of my neighborhood would have been out of a job come January and would have had to move, the rest of us would have left because living under a "my way or the highway" style of mayor would have been intolerable. We can now look forward to the sheriff and police chief continuing to work together, someone with vision leading the administration and my company gets to keep a client (can you say "win win"?).

The school levy passed. Folks seem to finally understand what a renewal levy is... took only HOW many tries on the ballot?

Sales tax in the county however did not survive. Once again this area is showing itself to be short-sighted. Findlay to our north passed not only their 1/2% sales tax but also a city income tax. They seem to understand that investment in the infrastructure is important to keeping a city (and a county) alive. It is important to continue to attract business. We don't seem to "get" that and then wonder why they rocket ahead of us. They also seem to have a more positive attitude about their city, which can't hurt.

Speaking of positive attitudes, the Mayor promised to not put up with the negativity and the nay-sayers any longer. "Enough!" he said. We are a community with a lot to offer and to be proud of and from now on that is what we will be focusing on and we will not listen to the nay-sayers. The voice of reason!

State issues are not yet final (at least so far as I know) but it looks as though we will get the casinos and the livestock board. Not thrilled about the livestock board (see previous rant) but at last look it was a very wide margin in favor of the board so we are stuck with it.

In news of the odd election-wise a community in the area appears to be voting to change their charter so as to change their form of government from a Mayor and Council to the City Manager style. This is a direct comment on the current mayor when you think about it. This is also a community that is, well.... odd. Sitting across three counties could tend to add to the weird. Rumor and to an extent the wisdom around our office is that the place is built on some cursed land (burial ground for example) and that leaches into the mindset of the community. It will be interesting to see what happens next. Stay tuned I suppose.