With the talk about the role of the city commission, I wanted to talk a bit about something that actually happened.
You know they re-named the north pond, McFarland Pond at the meeting the other night. I know this isn't earth shaking news, and isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. It made Mrs. McFarland happy, and the family, which is one good result.
I just want to make the point of how it happened.
A group of people approached the commission and asked them. They had to go through channels, and they did, and the city gave the OK. (The request to open it up for fishing has not yet been approved, still some channels involved there.)
They were all Lions Club members, but it is not a Lions Club project.
THese are the same people - Bob Mathews, Gary Hale, and a couple others, - who got the name changed to Veterans Lake at 6th St. Pond.
The Lions CLub is building a small shelter and plans to put up a flagpole and a flag.
The guys who approached the commission are also heavily involved in the fishing derby, which is growing each year.
They wouldn't be above using McFarlands Pond - or even other ponds and or lakes - for future fishing derby's. In just four years they now have literally hundreds of kids involved.
These sames guys are trying to get Veterans Lake cleaned up. Theres a lot of brush, weeds, briars and such, that need to be cleaned up. They are trying to have a workday Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. They have made a fair amount of progress already.
They could sit around and moan about how the city isn't cleaning up Veterans Lake, and how it isn't fair that the north pond isn't named after the people who once owned the land. AND they could complain about kids hanging out causing trouble.
Or they could start a fishing derby to get kids involved in fishing, and then they could draw attention to the city's lakes by working toward getting them presentable and usable.
I guess it is true that changing a name of a pond isn't exactly earth shaking news that will change Arkansas City forever. But then again, if everyone took on a project of some kind ... it just might.
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16 comments:
Thanks for putting this at least on your blog:}
My hope was to get others more involved in more than just this project.
As you have said, start somewhere.
Thanks!:}
outside looking in
I am working on trying to get the Main Street going. I have done some other smaller things that I hope will pay off big in the long run.
Also, I have been helping the Ark City Skate Coalition try and get a new skate park.
What are you doing?
I think it would be great if we could post what we are /or plan to do, hopefully, more is being done than we realize.
good point
that was why we created the idea blog, it hasnt gotten off the ground yet.
my project is the River of Life Music Festival, to be the first weekend of October this year.
:)
Right now we are involved in getting Veteran's Lake cleaned up. We have more ideas for that area that we are finding out about.
Husband will be involved in the fishing derby, main street association, looking into starting a business within 2 years and has started attending commission meetings lately.
There are other things we are looking into as well.
outside looking in
DTF,
My husband also works a full time job in Wichita, so he may not get to his emails until evenings.
Thanks:}
Outside looking in
Outside looking in--
Great! I look forward to hearing from your husband.
Are the one who posted about the taxi? Did you look into the Trolley deal? I just think that would be so cool.
I would be interested to hear some more of your business ideas... I teach entrepreneurship so I get a kick out of this kind of stuff.
Also, have some ideas of my own.
You can e-mail me at downtownfan@gmail.com if you don't want to post the ideas for the world to see.
Yes, that would be us:}
He also had the same idea about converting some of those downtown buildings into livable apartments for college kids. I'm sure he will email you more on that as well. [we got downright excited when we seen others were thinking along the same lines!]
Outside looking in
HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT AS THE BLOGS ROLL OFF THEY DISAPPEAR INTO OBSCURITY? HOW MANY TOPICS HAVE HAD HEATED DISCUSSION THEN JUST ROLLED OFF AND FADED AWAY. IMPORTANT THOUGHTS, GONE FOREVER
There is a section called archive (on the right hand side) that goes all the way back to September 2007. The blogs aren't lost you just have to look there for old ones.
Who cares about them disappearing. It was just filled with a bunch of whining anyway.
"Who cares about them disappearing. It was just filled with a bunch of whining anyway."
Am I the only one who sees major irony in that statement?
It's just about as funny as it gets.
:)
Pasted from Traveler Talk Local. Hope you don't mind Patrick.:
Somewhere recently, either here in the forum, or over in James Blog, people were interested in possibilities of development along the river. It is true that there are very specific limits to what goes on the levee, there are very few limits on what can go alongside the levee. On the river side any development must be prepared for flood. This generally leaves docks, concrete picnic tables, etc. On the dry side, there are very few limitations.
The link below takes you to the Levee Owners Manual. Starting on page 7 of the manual it talks about encroachments. They do not list any footage requirements that I saw. However, they talk about the Project Area Easement (this distance will likely depend upon the construction/size of the levee, etc.) and that construction is usually (not always) denied. It also shows some pictures describing what is and is not okay.
The city owns most of the porperty, so the Project Area Easement issue is not really relavent and individual property owners can build on their property without worrying about encroaching. We would send anything in our property area through the Corp review.
http://www.usace.army.mil/cw/cecwhs/em/fcw/lom/lom.html
I hope this answers the question. I just wish I could remember where the question was!
Patrick
Am I the only one who sees major irony in that statement?
It's just about as funny as it gets.
>>>
I was still laughing about it when your post showed up.
I think it was the most humourous today, and there have been several.
they are all still there .. i get all the posts in my email, so even if you post on an old one, ill still get it.
j
who is gopokes
i think i know, but ....
maybe send me an email, i wont tell.
Thanks James. I wasn't sure where that went.
I've cut back to just trying to answer questions so I probably won't be seen as often.
I'll watch when I can and carry as much as I can remember to the commission.
Patrick
Would someone please tell the city commisioner that works at KanPac to please do something about the terrible sewer smell coming from their plant
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