Next time I have a light council schedule remind me NOT to tell my wife about it. ;-) Other than a couple of meetings, an election, one special event and a lot of discussion with residents in the Silverton area regarding a proposed development, a bathroom remodel dominated this week. Note to readers – when shower walls show signs of rot and need replacing you WILL also find rotten subflooring. The vanity cabinetry will NOT come out in one piece, and you WILL end up replacing ALL the plumbing. And if your wife is anything like mine, you WILL also smooth the ceiling – no ifs ands or buts about it. And since we all know that if momma aint happy aint nobody happy, we now have smooth ceilings in the bathroom. After about 10 trips to Lowes it’s done, and I must say it looks pretty darn good!
On Election Day I worked the polls for NC State Representative Nelson Dollar – and what a cold and rainy day it was. Nonetheless, I had a good time, spoke to a lot of voters and friends, and Nelson won reelection. Afterwards I came home to get warm and watch the Presidential election returns/coverage. While I was disappointed that John McCain didn’t win, the American people have spoken. I wish Barack Obama the best and will support him as President until he gives me reason not to. Regardless, I am sooooooooo glad the election is finally over!!!!! ;-)
This week I met with representatives of Singh, the developer of a proposed commercial project in Silverton that I spoke about in my last week in review to further discuss resident’s concerns. We also discussed whether or not the developer would be interested in bringing back their original mixed use proposal instead of developing the property as commercial (the mixed use proposal will generate roughly 1/3 of the traffic, and be less of an impact to the adjoining residents than the commercial proposal will). Singh expressed an interest in revisiting the mixed use project, but understandably also expressed concerns due to previous neighborhood opposition of the project. Now I wasn’t on council when the mixed use proposal came through, but I can tell you from the dozens of residents I have spoken to recently, a clear majority support working with the developer on the mixed use project instead of seeing the property develop as commercial. It is my hope that a compromise can be reached that all stakeholders can live with – but compromise is a two way street. Everyone must come to the table willing to work together for this to be successful. We will have a neighborhood meeting soon – I’ll keep you posted.
I also had the pleasure of attending the “Paint the Town Drug Free” Red Ribbon Awards Banquet this week (last week I served as a judge). This was a lot of fun. Police Chief Pat Bazemore and every School Resource Officer (SRO) we have were in attendance. While not every entry could win an award, everyone who competed in this contest was a winner. They all learned about the benefits of staying drug free, and had a great time doing it. The grand prize winner even walked away with a Playstation Portable – how cool is that?! Heck, next year I might submit an entry. ;-)
Well that’s about it for this week in review – sorry for keeping it short but I’m beat. I’m going to grab a shower…hopefully all the paint will finally come off. ;-)