Sunday, April 20, 2008

Week In Review #2

It was a busy week, but a good week. Their were numerous meetings with citizens, elected officials, town staff and members of the business community.

Tuesday was fun. While I already spoke about the meeting the Cary Council had with WCPSS in an earlier post, I also had the honor and privilege of presenting a proclamation to Cary's telecomunicators (the folks who pick up the phone when you call 911) proclaiming April 13th - 19th Telecomunicator's Week in Cary. The security and safety of our citizens, our police officers, fire, and emergency personnel are dependent on these folks ability to do their job calmly and quickly. They do just that. As someone who has had to call 911 a time or two - and as someone who has had the opportunity to watch these folks in action - their dedication and service to our community is priceless.

On Wednesday I met with an individual who lives in "old Cary" (inside the Maynard Loop) and we discussed the growing issue of rental decline in town, and what we as a council are doing to address the issue. As someone who lives inside the Maynard Loop this issue hits close to home for me. Over the last couple of months I have been working with town staff on ways the town can better address this very problem. And I must say it's been awesome to have such a dedicated and hard working staff to work with. It is long past time we hold deadbeat landlords accountable for their properties. Better policing and enforcement, new ordinances, and penalties for repeat offenders are just some of the things we are working on.

Thursday night was our P+D committee meeting (no issues and minutes from that meeting can be found here). And I also attended the Western Wake Republican Club Spring Fling event. There were numerous candidates in attendance for the U.S House of Representatives, NC State House and Senate, Judicial seats, as well as representatives from the gubernatorial campaigns.

Friday morning was council's breakfast meeting at Courtney's Restaurant. Of the topics that we discussed, the one that got the most discussion was whether the town should look into taking over maintenance of sections of state roads such as Cary Parkway since the state clearly isn't handling their responsibility. Then again, when the state raids the highway trust fund to balance the budget every year, how can they? Yep, time for "change" alright. ;-)

Saturday evening I had the honor of attending the Cary Community Foundation's Black and White Gala. What a wonderful evening this was, and kudos to Cary Town Council member Jennifer Robinson and all the folks at CCF and sponsors for making this a night to remember. It is amazing what can happen when citizens and business leaders come together for the betterment of the community.

Well that's it for now - Thanks for reading!