"I guess sometimes, there aren't just enough rocks." Forrest Gump
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| If you're a fan, you know what I mean |
What A Difference A Year Makes
A year ago about this time there was a
bit of a cloud over 220 Stout Street. It wasn't as ominous as, say,
the shadow monster above the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana of
Stranger Things-fame but it
definitely cast a dark shadow over the city. Mainly, we were looking
at a $150,000 shortfall in the 2017 budget. Primarily driven by the
dramatic increase in the cost of health insurance, the budget
committee had recommended to the council that Chetek's PD be reduced
by one full-time officer to right the ship, as it were. At the
November 2016 meeting the council endorsed that recommendation but in
order to prevent one of our younger guys from being laid off, then
Chief Mark Petersen offered to retire. As Ernest Lawrence Thayer
would put it, there was no joy in Mudville as we approached the new
year.
What a
difference a year makes, however. At the city council meeting this
coming Tuesday, the council is expected to endorse without any
significant changes the proposed 2018 budget which includes, among
other things, a 3% pay increase for our employees (last year we were
only able to offer a 1% increase). We received high marks at our
annual audit last month and insurance costs have leveled off a bit.
It's true our garbage utility rates will be going up but that is
driven largely by the county who this past summer essentially “fired”
the management firm who had run the Waste-to-Energy facility since
its inception in the 1980s and made it
officially a county operation.
Barron County Administrator Jeff French has made it no secret that if
we're going to continue to operate the only county-run incinerator in
the entire state we'll have to pay for it. (It's still a good deal,
though, than the alternative – burying our trash in a hole that is
certain to leak one day.) The new garbage truck the city recently
purchased will allow us to continue to provide residential garbage
service but allow the second man who otherwise would be working on
the truck to tend to other projects around town. And while the
Central States issue is still a bitter pill to swallow we are closer
to the end of that matter than to the beginning. So, all in all
things are looking up as we approach 2018.
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| Maybe I'm overstating it but things are looking up |
The 2018 budget
hearing will be held this coming Tuesday, November 14, at 5:30 pm, a
half hour before the monthly council meeting, and is open to the
public.
There are no
words
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| Gone before their time |
It's been a difficult year for Chetek. The tornado this past May and
Owen Knutson's untimely death a week later and then the tragic,
violent deaths of Brenda Turner and her 17 year-old daughter,
Natalie, a member of the same graduating class of Owen, just last
week. How much can a little town take, right? Of course, we are not
the only city to suffer tragedy in recent months – Las Vegas,
Manhattan, and sadly, Sutherland Springs, Texas just this past Sunday
– to name three. But as all of us know when you live in a small
community you feel these losses more acutely because if you
didn't know, say, Owen or Natalie, you probably know someone who did.
And given the circumstances of these losses it feels, especially for
those directly affected, as if life has kicked them directly in the
solar plexus and left them gasping for breath.
#Unite4Chetek Campaign
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| I know I shouldn't say this in polite company but "flippin' awesome" |
I don't know whose idea it was but just last Thursday, students,
educators and members of communities all over northwestern Wisconsin
wore purple in our honor. If you use social media you already know
about this as throughout that day and the weekend that followed
countless pictures from Chippewa to Shell Lake, from Bloomer to
Spooner, were posted of people young and old donning purple as a sign
of unanimity with us as we grieve. I know I speak for all of us when
I say we are overwhelmed by such a demonstration of love and concern.
It is, perhaps, one of the first best things to come out of
such a grievous loss and as mayor I simply want to convey my
heartfelt appreciation.
I
think of that scene in Forrest
Gump
when Jenny returns to the dilapidated farm house of her youth, the
place where she had experienced so much pain and suffering at the
hands of her father, in anger she starts to grab for rocks to throw
at the house. When she can't find any more in despair she falls to
the ground and begins to weep. Quietly, Forrest sits down beside her
in her grief and you hear his poignant voice-over, “I guess
sometimes, there just aren't enough rocks.” All of you who wore
purple this past Thursday did what Forrest did for Jenny – you wept
with us. One of the Bible's admonitions is to “mourn with those who
mourn”. And somehow this little kindness of wearing one of our
school colors in our honor becomes a very big thing after all.
We
will get through this. As the old ones are wont to say, “This too
will pass.” But how comforting to be reminded that we are not alone
as we go through this. Like the words Billy Shears wrote but the Beatles sang out, "We get by with a little help from our friends."
The list of the schools and communities that I am aware of who participated in the #Unite4Chetek campaign (forgive me if your town is not listed here):
Barron
Cumberland
Prairie Farm
Durand, Arkansaw
Ladysmith
Cameron
Flambeau
Bloomer
Maple
Bruce
Eureka Illinois
New Auburn
Spooner
Cornell
