July 1 meeting

Here is what is on the agenda for this week's meeting.

Worksession is today at 5:30

Regular meeting is Tuesday at 7

Consider ordinance amending the budgeted pay plan for 2008. (This is some reorganization in the wake of Archer being promoted to city manager, and the retirement of the city clerk)

Introduction of new City Clerk, Lesley Shook.   

Consider charter ordinance modifying role of Public Building Commission.  (Roll call vote). 

Receive report on Mid-Cap Emergency Grant program.  Marion Nichols.  (Voice vote). 

Consider resolution to select the South Central Kansas Economic Development District 

(SCKEDD) as the 2008 HOME Investment Partnerships Grant Administrator and Housing 

Inspector.  (Voice vote) 

Consider resolution authorizing staff to utilize state purchasing contracts.  (Voice vote).   

Resume tabled public hearing on municipal code violations.  David Frazee.  (Voice vote).  

Consider Mayor’s appointments to City Boards. 

Eating establishments

We were in Wichita Friday evening and ate at one of those buffet-type places. Ryans.
I noticed the quality of the food and it reminded me of other places.
Actually the quality wasn't real good. Im not sure why, maybe its just cheaper ingredients or something.
They had a great selection, more choices than say the Sirloin Stockade here. BUT, the quality of the food itself was not as good.
For instance, lettuce, carrots and other veggies on the salad bar tasted kind of bland at Ryans. They all tasted the same pretty much. Carrots should not taste like lettuce, right?

They had a guy grilling steaks to order, but the quality of the meat just wasnt real good.
Ive noticed this at other places even among the same chain.
Subway here, for instance, tastes better than the subway in Winfield but not as good as Ponca. Same sandwiches and same chain, but different taste.
Ive worked at some fast food joints and know that they get all their stuff from the same place, so I am not sure why it is that there is a difference in quality.
Anyone have any insight into this?

planning ?

They didn't have a quorum at the planning commission meeting, so they were not able to have the hearing.

They were to have the hearing and make a recommendation back to the commission. 

There are three vacancies on the board now, and two of the remaining six did not show up.

About 20 people showed up, and some were upset about it getting put off again.

So now they will have to advertise a hearing again, and hold a new one.

Steve Archer says the city cannot act on it next week without the planning commission's blessing. 

more windows

Theres a public hearing on the windows ordinance at the planning commission meeting at 6 pm. Thursday.
Right now it is scheduled for the commission chambers, but there had been talk of moving it to either the senior center or to cowley.
This hearing is a legal requirement. Doesn't everyone know how everyone feels about that already? :)

The city hopes this will allow them to zone the downtown buildings so that they can more effectively control how they look.

recall ?

Theres not been many comments since Friday. Moderation really isnt that big of a deal. I was already deleting some posts.
This whole blog and forum thing is a whole new world.
I dont really like the gratuitous violence that is spewed anonymously, but at the same time, freedom of speech is not always pleasant.

I dont read the forums either. There are people who say really nasty things about me over there anonymously. You don't see me complaining though. I'm all for their right to do so. Im exercising my right to ignore them.

I did hear that there was more talk of a recall vote on the forums.
The rumor is the lawyers need something like $5,000 more.
The only people who like a good controversy more than newspaper people is lawyers.
I dont really see anyone benefiting from a recall other than the lawyers.

The city is already fairly well divided. There is already a good bit of negativity going around. I think a recall would just make that worse. Elections are not that far away, and that is where recall votes are supposed to happen.
We need to think about what is best for the community overall and in the long term.
A recall vote would sell a lot of newspapers, and keep attorneys employed, but I just dont think it would be good for Arkansas City.

There is a huge question of whether there is even legal justification. That's why the lawyers want a big war chest to defend against potential lawsuits.
We might have an election or two before it would be resolved in the courts.
And Im not even commenting on whether I would be for or against it.

my dog story

I enjoyed keeli's Wal-Mart story yesterday. Her mentioning the dogs reminded me of one of my favorite dog stories.

Couple years ago I was driving around - back when you could just drive for an hour or two and not feel like you were throwing a way a lot of money - and ended up in Belle Plaine. Saw an antique store and decided to go in. The door was halfway open - so that means the business is open right?
I didn't hear or see anyone in the store, but didn't think too much about it and started looking around.
I made my way towards the back of the store. Soon i was startled by the sound of a sniff and a low growl. I turned around and looked into the eyes of a huge black lab. Probably at least 80 pounds and only about 2 feet from me.
He didn't look mean, but he sensed that he had spooked me, and you know how dogs get in that situation. So he barked and came a bit closer.
I had no way out, he had me cornered.
I tried to escape but he barked and growled at me. He didnt want me to move, so i didnt.
I tried hollering, but that got him excited too, so .....
for about 20 minutes it was just me and the dog.
FINALLY someone walked by and saw my plight. They called the owner who came down and called off the dog.
The store had been closed for a long time, he had just left the door open while he was working on something.
Its funny now, wasnt then.

full moon

Yesterday was certainly interesting.
Maybe I over reacted a bit. Didn't mean to offend anyone.
but im hoping to move on.
The only real difference is that i will see comments before they get posted. I was already deleting some posts, so the number that get trashed won't change much.
There are some pretty nasty posts at times. and that is what people object to. We have been getting lots of complaints about them. You can disagree with people, and post that, without being disagreeable.
The internet is a whole new world and we are all still learning.
It was a full moon and it was the summer solstice yesterday. That probably had an effect. Im not being superstitious either. It's well documented that the full moon affects people's blood pressure.

Archers pay

When Steve Archer was named city manager last week, his salary was listed at $90,000.

The departing manager, Doug Russell, was making $78,000.

Some have questioned why that is. I asked Patrick McDonald, who explained the city's position on that.

Basically, Archer was already making a nice salary. He was given a five percent raise, which brought him up to $90,000. 

Russell had a lot less experience. He got a nice raise to come here, but because he lacked a lot of experience they started him at a lower rate than CM's of similar sized cities.

County administrator Leroy Alsup makes $90,000.

Russell got a raise to 78,000 this year - from $70,000 -  and was in line to get another substantial raise next year. He would have been at $90,000 in a couple of years.

Archer has been here several years - 10 or more - and has been given raises all along. He was making nearly, or maybe even a little more, than Russell was. The co

Sounded reasonable to me.

moderating

I am going to start moderating the blog.
What this means is, I'll have to approve your post before it gets posted.
Ill still let nearly all of them through. Ill just cut out "bad words" and "excessive negativity."
But I cant edit them. Ill have to either allow the whole post or reject it all.

commissioners

I really believe that all 5 commissioners are sincere people and are doing what they think is best.
Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are not.
It is a thankless task really.
They get paid a little something, but it isn't much. Im sure it costs them more than they make.

We should appreciate and respect what they are trying to do, and the effort they are putting in.
At the same time, they are fair game :)
When they do well, I'm going to say so. When they don't do so well, Ill say that too.

Having youre actions and words scrutinized by everyone is just part of the territory of being a commissioner.

I also wanted to note, that Doug Russell's leaving was his own doing. He may have had conflicts with the commission, but the choice to leave was his.

New CM, other city business

Steve Archer was named City Manager at the city meeting last week. I don't think anyone was surprised, and it seemed pretty unanimous.
He is the logical choice, having been here several years. He has been director of administration for several years, and taking over as the CM is not too different.
My only complaint was with how it was handled early on. I've talked with the commissioners about it and we just don't agree. They didn't do anything illegal. I just thought they gave the appearance of not being open about it, and they feel they were.
But as Charles said, maybe we should be more concerned with the destination than how we got here. I'll give the city credit for listening to my objection.

Last night's meeting was very long. It was made long by the Bert Wilson dog and pony show.
Wilson, an attorney, was representing a client who had been cited for having a junky yard. When you get a citation you may request a hearing, which is what happened.
This was land owned by the Frazee's on Kansas Ave., and a house on C. Street.

There was a long debate over what "and more" means. The citation noted abandoned cars, trash, limbs "and more." He said his client did not clean up the area because it said "and more" and because they didn't know what "and more" means, they didn't know what to clean up. He argued that it was not his clients responsibility to call up the city and and find out what "and more" means.

Wilson went on about how there is no state law requiring that wood be stacked in a yard. The city presented pictures of a pile of wood that had other stuff in it, and Wilson argued that it was firewood and there is no law requiring that it look nice. It looked like a pile of junk to most people, but ... the debate went on. One man's pile of junk is another man's supply of firewood.
It went on for nearly 2 hours.
There was a picture of 6 cars that appeared to be junked, but Wilson argued that all of them would start, and therefore they were not abandoned. He noted that the owner had only one battery and could take it to each vehicle to use when he wanted to drive one of them. One had a broken windshield and Wilson argued that while the state statute says one's view may not be blocked, there is no specific requirement that there actually be glass in a windshield.

The city gave them two more weeks to "show progress" with getting things cleaned up.
Mayor Mell Kuhn voted against giving them even more time. He offered to help clean up the property. It is very near, maybe next to, his business property on Kansas Ave.
Kuhn recently had his property rezoned. The property owners could avoid some of their issues by having their property rezoned as well.

Some have questioned Kuhn's rezoning. (From business to light industrial) I was at the meeting and I don't recall the exact specifics, but I don't remember there being anything unusual about it. There was something about whether it had been zoned properly in the first place.
But Kuhn has put himself in an interesting situation. He is fighting the downtown building owners, as well as other property owners on cleaning up their property.
His own property is on Kansas Ave. , a major street in the city that a lot of people use.
So he will have added pressure in that his own property is on "display" as it were.
He seems pretty serious about cleaning the town up.
If that were to become his "issue," that might be a good thing for the city.

Work session

Last night's work session was long. They went into executive session after four hours of meeting, to discuss "non elected personnel." Of course, that was to negotiate with Steve Archer for the job of city manager. Tonight he may get appointed.

There were several items of discussion before they even got to the agenda. This blog was even a topic of discussion. Dotty Smith and Patrick McDonald had an interesting "discussion" about the badges.
She explained her side of the story. She never tried to arrest anyone. She said she never "flashed" it. Im not sure what the difference is between "flashing" and "showing." She said she mostly shows it to kids in schools when she explains what a mayor is and what a mayor does. (Referring of course to when she was mayor.)
The badges are commemorative things that commissioners - and mayors - have received for years. Though I think there was a time recently when they were not getting them.
They are not very expensive in the overall scheme of things.
But Dotty pointed out to me that her badge was given to her by a friend.

There was someone who was upset with her for showing it to him on the street. This person threatened to write a letter to the editor, but never did. She said she only showed it to him to show that she was who she claimed to be.

I think its a tempest in a teapot, or much ado over nothing, or maybe some other Shakespeare play.

Speaking of the blog. Yesterday's post also got a reaction from the commission. Two commissioners called me.
I have to give Mell Kuhn credit here. He didn't like it and let me know exactly why it was he didn't like it. I saw him later on in the day, and he didn't act upset or anything. He voiced his opinion and objection about it and then moved on.
Patrick also called but I was really busy on deadline and didn't get to talk much.

So I guess the blog is getting some attention.
I think it can make a difference. The commissioners don't think they are being secretive or that they are withholding information. Maybe they are not for the most part. Still, sometimes the do give that impression. I should perhaps note here that I am talking about the three amigos.

In other items of discussion, they hospital board showed up and began making its pitch for a half-cent sales tax. This would have to go to voters. A sales tax is the fairest of taxes. Everyone pays.

They also talked about cutting some money from the friendship meal program. This is kind of an interesting issue. They are talking about cutting "extra" money that they have been giving the program. The funding for the program itself would remain in place. Other cities in our area do not give the program extra money, so it would bring us in line with what others do.
The city already contracts with a company to provide the meals both at the senior center and delivered. That would not be affected For some years the city has put additional money into the program, and that is what is being discussed.

The Vinelife church was also discussed. The city is trying to get out from under it. The folks at Vinelife are interested in taking it over. They currently lease the building.
More department heads also made their pitch to the commission for their annual budgets.

Tonight may not be as interesting, though we may get a new city manager.

Commission,CM

Below is pasted in the agenda for this week's commission meetings. The work session is monday at 5:30, the regular meeting is at 7 monday.
The last item on the agenda is the new city manager
Here is what the packet says

"It is anticipated that the City Commission will take action to appoint a new City Manager at the Tuesday City Commission meeting and that it will approve the terms of employment for the new City Manager and authorize the Mayor to sign a contract incorporating those terms. "

Theres been no public meeting since the meeting where Doug gave his resignation and when Archer was appointed acting CM.
How do you reckon this got to "anticipated" status then?

City officials say that because it is an employee matter that it needs to be not held in public. 

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize they will likely appointed Steve Archer. He has been with the city several years and was an applicant earlier. He is qualified, and is acting CM now, so it does kinda make sense.

At a the last meeting I got stonewalled over asking where Doug had gone. (At the last meeting the CM , Doug Russell, submitted his resignation in executive session - private meeting - and when the meeting was over Doug has disappeared.)

The question of where Doug had gone seemed to have the commission stumped. 2 or 3 commissioners have explained to me later that it had to be done in executive session and they didnt know how to answer.

That is what had made me uncomfortable lately.

The Kansas law NEVER, never ever ever ... says you HAVE to do anything in private, or in executive session.
And it certainly does not say you may not discuss what is said in executive session.

It took my arguing with them at the last meeting to even get them to say they had talked about the CM. Saying what you are going to talk about in executive session is required.

They do seem to have turned a bit secretive recently. There is no reason to keep secret any discussion about a direction the commission might take in regard to hiring a CM.
Actual negotiations with an individual yes, but not general ... "where do we go" type of talk.






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1. Hearing on municipal code violations. David Frazee. (Voice vote).
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2. Consider ordinance levying special assessments for the cost of nuisance abatement for
properties in violation of city codes. (Roll call vote).
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3. Consider ordinance levying special assessments for the cost of property maintenance
violations for properties in violation of city codes. (Roll call vote).
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June 17, 2008 Commission Meeting Agenda - Page 2 of 2
4. Consider request for transfer of land bank property at 102 S. G. Kristi Shaw. (Voice vote).
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5. Receive 2008 annual report and 2009 budget request from City/County Health
Department.
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6. Receive report on Mid-Cap Emergency Grant program. Marion Nichols. (Voice vote).
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7. Consider transfer of funds from South Central Kansas Water Coalition to REAP Water
Resources Committee. (Voice vote).
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8. Consider actions related to the appointment of a new City Manager. (Voice vote).
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Miscellaneous Matters from the City Manager/City Commission.
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my favorite political song

The Who

Won't get fooled again, 1971

We'll be fighting in the streets, with our children at our feet

and the morals that they worship will be gone

and the men who spurred us on sit in judgement of all wrong

they decide and the shotgun sings the song

Ill tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution

smile and grin at the change all around me

pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday

then ill get on my knees and pray, we dont get fooled again

The change it had to come, we knew it all along

we were liberated from the foe, thats all

and the world looks just the same and history ain' t changed

cause the banners, they all flown in the next war.

Ill move myself and my family aside if we happen to be left half alive

ill get all my papers and smile at the sky

for i know that the hypnotized never lie ... do ya?

There's nothing in the street looks any different to me

and the slogans are all replaced bye the bye

and the parting on the left is now parting on the right

and the beards have all grown longer over night

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

saturday work

http://www.tonyskansascity.com/index.html

Above is a link to a blog about kansas city. I thought it was cool, though perhaps a tad too racy for Arkansas City. But it makes me think ... what if...

Whats even worse is that I am at the Traveler working on our Progress Edition on a beautiful summer day on a Saturday. So I don't have the best attitude at the moment.

Does anyone read our progress edition?

Do you know what it is ?

I really do like our daily paper. I think we do a good job considering our resources.

But I never hear any comment about our special sections.  Still, i try to do a decent job on them.

The progress edition is the biggest one of the year. We are to be done Tuesday and I think it comes out next Saturday. 

Anyways the above blog gave me some ideas about stuff I could do here.

Ok I won't post pics of scantily clad young women, at least not yet.

Paper's late

We lost power today for awhile.

Because of that the paper will be late, probably an hour or two late.

Just wanted to let everyone know.

Politics and oil

Warning: This post is very political and will offend conservatives and liberals alike. There is however, no mention of religion.
:)
Just for the sake of argument. A guy loses his job and goes on unemployment and welfare for a short time. Soon he gets a great job, paying something like $500,000 a year, along with a company car, private jet, great expense account and free housing.
Now, what if he kept getting his welfare check that kept getting larger, And what if he also got another raise in pay every month or so?
Would that be upsetting? Would you be upset at the officials or politicians who let that happen?

Well thats exactly what happened earlier in the week.
The big oil companies - who are making tremendous profits now - were allowed to keep their corporate welfare checks.
Some Senators wanted to cut the checks back - not eliminate, just cut back - but they were blocked by fellow Senators. The GOP senators were the ones doing the blocking and they had Bush's blessing.

This really happened this week. I guess I am just still angry about it.
Now don't take this to mean that I support the Democrats. There were several Dems who voted to continue the corporate welfare checks, and few Dems have spoken out. This crosses party lines. It is just that in general it was GOP senators who led the blockage of cutting back on the corporate welfare checks. It is ugly politics at its worst.

But Bush IS an oil man and this happened on his watch.

Both sides are culpable here. The GOP is encouraging obscene profits AND giving big oil companies welfare checks at the same time. This is the same party that wants to be sure no homeless mother gets too much money for milk cause she might buy a beer with some of it.
But the Dems are no better. They want to limit even responsible exploration as they suck up to the environmentalists. This is the party that supports not allowing anyone to say an offensive word to anyone but supports killing the not yet born babies.

So i guess ive offended just about everyone here. But I am angry about gas prices. I blame both parties, maybe the GOP a little more, but both parties are making things worse.
This is ridiculous. The politicians are letting the oil companies rape the citizenry and destroy the economy all in the name of big corporate profits.

If there was ever a time for a third party to emerge, NOW is that time.

political season could be interesting

Oh my.

Today at noon is the filing deadline for political races.

I just found out that Steve Abrams has filed for state senate, to run against Greta Goodwin.

So that's why he hasn't filed for reelection to the state board of ed.

This could be fun.

land run possibilities

I emailed back and forth with Heather Ferguson at the museum. She is working on a pioneer days festival. A barbeque, story tellers, gunfights and that sort of thing.
I am remembering now that they have it every year.
She said they are still in the planning stages. I am going to meet with her next week.
My suggestion is that people who are interested join forces with her and bring your ideas.

If you would like to meet with her, let me know, or if you want to work on this with the museum people, let me know.

How would a kids landrun work?
Im having trouble visualizing it, but it does sound like a fascinating idea.
Might try to have one with the the music festival too?

They have that for campsites at the walnut valley festival. Do you guys go to that?

jj

land run

We need to get going on this landrun thing.
Let's talk about ideas first. What ideas do you have?

Sept. 16 is a Tuesday .. so you could have something that day, but weekends are better .. you could have something that day, but have your festival the weekend before. This is also when the Walnut Valley Festival will be going on. Dont know if the museum has someting planned already.

A kids run is a great idea with lots of possibilities .. the field by the old meat packing plant - our concert site, would be a good location.

So we need people to talk to everyone you run into. See what ideas they have. Who do they think would like to get involved. From this we can find a committee to get it going.
We also need people to talk with "official" people. Commissioners, business owners, ..Heather at the museum, the chamber - connie kimsey especially - also the two radio stations ..
How supportive are they going to be? what will their involvement be?

some money will be needed, so we have to figure out how to get money. who is good at begging?
lots of businesses will donate things though, and thats as good as money.

we only have three months, so we need to get going.

So talk with everyone and gathe rwhat info you can ... and what are you ideas.
Post these things here..

Im going to be busy with the River of LIfe Music Festival, so i wont be much help later, .. ill just try to get it started and ill help promote it in the news media.

here we go.

weather

Just watching the storm roll in on the radar.
Looks like its in Geuda right now and should be here in a minute
Let me know of things that are happening.
any damages etc.,
Im not going out in the rain to take pictures, but will later.

ideas

There's been some good ideas on here recently.
I do think we could make a lot more of our history than we do. It is a colorful history.
There are some places that make a really big deal out of their history when its pretty bogus really.
One instance of that is the "state of franklin." Back in the colonial days, maybe just after the revolutionary war and after the 13 states were set, some guys west of the Appalachians decided to start a country. North Carolina claimed land all the way to the Mississippi River, but these guys decided to take the land west of the Appalachians and call it Franklin.
The N.C. militia showed up and told them to cut it out. They said "ok" and they faded away.
So now several towns in that area celebrate the "lost" state of Franklin, and their part in the "forgotten" revolutionary war.

Our history is a lot better than that.

Recreating the land run is a cool idea. There are people working on railroad festivals, and that is good too.

We just need some people to step up and get it done.

Tuesdays meet

The city commission meeting was kinda quiet.
I didn't get shot or anything.
They appointed Steve Archer to be the "acting" city manager. That means he will serve as city manager until they decide what to do.
He could become the city manager or not. I really don't know the commission's intent there, or Archer's desire or interest level.

Maybe they want to talk about it a bit, which would be a good thing. Just hope they do that publicly. Time will tell.

They didnt talk much about Doug Russell. They read a letter from him which outlined some things.
Doug will be an advisor for the next 30 days. Apparently he will not be keeping regular office hours, but will have access to office stuff to do stuff he needs to do.

Tonight's meeting

Tonight's meeting was interesting.
I believe the CM, Doug Russell, submitted his resignation.
They went into executive session (private meeting) before getting to business at hand, for about 20 minutes. Anticipating the CMs resignation, I was not surprised at that.

Doug was there when they went into their private meeting.
When they came back out into open session, Doug was nowhere to be seen.
Chief of Administration Steve Archer was sitting where Doug normally sits, and he seemed to take the role of a city manager.
Near the end of the meeting they had another private meeting. Archer called for it, for a non elected personnel matter - which is legal. A couple of the other commissioners also said they needed short executive sessions.

When they allowed the public - me - back in, they were already discussing the Vinelife Church.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist - or even a republican - to figure out that Vinelife Church is not an employee of the city. It is a building owned by the city and should not have been discussed in executive session. They were in the middle of discussing it when the meeting again became public.

After the meeting, and waiting out another executive session, I tried asking about the city manager situation and got such a runaround that I didn't even ask about the church.

It was a simple question. And one that should have been expected.
Where is Doug?

At first they tried to completely avoid the question about where Doug was.
Dotty Smith jokingly asked who was that?
Mayor Mell Kuhn said "come back tomorrow night and see."

Based on talking with Patrick McDonald and Steve Archer, I gathered that Doug did in fact resign as expected. Archer would be the normal fill-in.
Doug us going to be with the city as an advisor for 30 days, the term of his notice period.

The CM obviously had left the building. Simple answer was that they accepted his resignation and asked Archer to fill in until they make a decision about what to do. They had talked about Russell's resignation in the executive session - i suppose - and that was fine.

What I don't know is why they were trying to avoid questions so much.

I try to report the news. When public officials stonewall I'll report that too.

Often their refusal to answer questions is a better story anyway.

They did say they would tell us tomorrow night at their regular meeting.
Joel Hockenbury gave the most reasonable response. He said simply that they talked about it in the private meeting and had not made a decision.

ideas

Hey the city commission worksession is today at 5:30 p.m.. should be interesting, to see the dynamics if nothing else.

what projects are you working on? maybe we could talk about that some.
if we share our ideas, maybe others can offer help.

i got that music festival going last year. i had no idea how to do it, and even in our second year, i still don't really know how. still going to do it though. already have a contract with two bands and dont have the money to pay them yet.

i am working on getting 501 3c status so that donations will be tax deductible. anyone got any experience in that? you have to do the state part first, before you do the federal. the state part looks real easy. i know nothing with the IRS is easy.

so far we are going to have a full day and evening of music and other entertainment on the river on sat. oct. 4. Sunday will be praise in the park in the afternoon. not sure if that will be at wilson park or on the river yet. if it rains everything will be at wilson park.

i had thought about haveng an "open mic" friday night. there is a home football game that night so not sure how that would affect things. maybe if everyone was at the game already, it wouldnt be a big deal to come on out ... in this we would let whoever wants to get up and play and or sing...
but i need someone to take over that part for me. ill have too much to do dealing with the saturday part. ... churches are dealing with the sunday part. the friday thing would involve extra expense, so it may fall by the wayside for this year. unless ..........

so what are your ideas and projects?

the question

It seems that no matter what the issue, the debate always slides into which side is better than the other side. Whether its windows, managers, immigration or whatever, the debate goes back to its common denominator.
Its the 3 amigos versus the two other guys, or its the banks against each other, or its the establishment against the regular citizens.. that is the same debate.u
But even that debate is the same one that goes on nationally. It is just those not in power against those in power. Maybe people need to get over losses and gear up to fight another day?

What is this wound that wont heal?
What do you think it means that the debate always goes back to the same issue?
Or is that also a smokescreen hiding the real issues?

I know there are some people on here who are just interested in tearing others down, but there are also some reasonable people capable of good discussion.
Im speaking more to the latter here.

This is going a bit deeper than surface issues. What are the core issues that make Arkansas City negative, or that give it a collective inferiority complex?

Its Sunday. Good time to go to church and soak up a little healing. That aught to get people going :)

j