And …. we are back after a small, but much needed hiatus to catch up on some studies. We still lack the quantity of contributors to the site that I wish we had picked up by now, but such is life. If you have something your mind, email it to us.

Anyway, the big topic around town is still the economy. The city council continues to struggle with the budget and some of the tough decisions it will need to make. It will catch flack regardless of the direction it takes, so it might as well make the best possible decisions it can. I suspect they have already been getting pummeled by citizens regarding raising taxes due to their comments at the last council meeting.

Both our water and sewer rates a likely increasing. The infrastructure for these systems is in need of repair and some capital investments have to be made. The fees charged for these systems can only be allocated to these specific services, they cannot be diverted to other city functions. However, while discussing these possible fee increases, multiple times in dramatic fashion, councilmen reiterated that this was not some type of sneaky tax increase to make up for the budget shortfall. Which in the end, is actually worst news, it means that our water and sewer rates are going up and we still have not addressed the budget shortfall so there will be more taxes on top of higher rates. I would have been happier to find out it was a sneaky method to get those extra needed revenues!