I hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving! Being thankful is such an important part of living a healthy fulfilling life that it is wonderful and wise to have holiday just for this purpose.

Our families this year ended up going in different directions, so Cathy and I took the opportunity to head to one of our favorite places, the Oregon coast. The condominium Cathy found for us was on the third floor directly overlooking a small creek running through the rocks to the waves. Waves were constantly breaking on the rocks below. It was great.

One of the interesting things below was seaweed growing on the exposed rock. The waves were constantly breaking over them, receding, leaving them exposed, then crashing over them again. The only time the seaweed had any rest was at the lowest of low tide.

I kept watching this seaweed to see if any of it broke loose, which it did not. It was a lesson in resilience. Lately I have felt a lot like this seaweed. Waves crashing over, a short break, only to have another wave crash, and then another, and another. Like the seaweed, it takes firm roots – even when there are only rocks to grab onto – and a lot of flexibility to absorb the blows. Sometimes it feels like the next wave will be it, but somehow there is always strength to keep going. I admire seaweed.

Well, so much for personal news. Now on to City business.

The saga of leaf pickup continues. This week’s instructions are for those who mulch their leaves. If you are going to mulch your leaves, please take the leaves to the landfill yourself or mulch them into your lawn. If the leaves are picked up by the City’s vacuum, the already shredded leaves get shredded a second time in the vacuum and go out through the screens right back into the air. This creates a very dusty mess on the road, vehicles, and workers. So please, if you want to mulch your own leaves, please remove them or mulch them into your lawn. Thank You!

I was visiting with Mike Campbell, your Public Works Director, and he was bringing me up to speed on potential projects. 

At Monday evening’s City Council meeting Mike will be presenting the feasibility study for the solar farm that has been written about in past notices. As a reminder, the City purchases your electricity from Bonneville Power at wholesale and passes these savings on to you at a cost that is 10% to 20% less than the cost of Idaho Power. However, the City is gradually using up the allotted 7mw of power at the discounted rate. If the City starts averaging above this amount, we will be required to purchase power on the open market, which is expensive. So, the City has commissioned a feasibility study for a solar farm to generate some of our own power. It will be interesting to go through and see the results of the study, which as of this writing I have not had a chance to review. 

In other projects, with the City Council’s approval we will also be requesting a grant to finish Commercial Street from E. 3^rd to Highway 95. This project, with obtaining funding, engineering, etc. would be about two to five years out.

Another project that we will be asking for the Council’s approval to pursue is a grant to place sidewalk from the corner of the High School on W. 7^th Street over to W. 9^th. This would complete a walking path from W. 9^th to the Downtown area. As part of that request, we would also ask for funding from the High School corner there at W. 7^th and Indianhead north on Paddock to the end of the Institute. These projects will be grant reliant as the City does not have the funds to finance these through the budget. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season! Weiser is a great place to live, work, and play!